The Terran Gunslinger
by TheWanderingHuntsman
Summary: Waking up on Remnant would be terrifying enough, but waking up a year prior to the show's start is a nightmare. Now, Jakob Liath is thrust into the middle of the escalating cold war between Ozpin and Salem. However, he wasn't brought to Remnant to defeat Salem but to kill those associated with her. Sometimes being a hero requires you to have a darker morality than usual.
1. Chapter 1: A Strange Wake up Call

Chapter 1: A Strange Wake up Call

* * *

" _To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour." - Winston Churchill_

* * *

I slowly stirred myself awake as I usually had done every morning and given by the sunlight that was hitting my shut eyes it was shortly after sunrise. As I had opened my eyes, I started stretching to get ready for the day. However, I had noticed that something was off, very off, which was the fact I was not in my bedroom but a very nice looking hotel room. I sat up quickly and scanned the room but found nothing out of the norm for hotel rooms, but I did notice something on the night stand next to the bed: a pair of Colt 1851 Navy Richards-Mason revolvers with dark mahogany wood grips and a dual tone finish with the cylinder, trigger, and hammer being brass and the frame and barrel in a matte black. Next to them was a pistol belt that had two dark brown leather holsters for the revolvers that seemed to be placed at the hips. There were individual loops for the bullets for the revolvers on the front part of the belt and the back part and another thing that seemed odd was that some of the bullets in the loops were a myriad of colors, ranging from red to blue to yellow and everything in between.

As I got out of the bed I noticed that colors seemed to be sharper and my general senses appeared to be finely tuned. Namely, my sight and smell seemed to be better than normal which had given me pause. This whole ordeal was far too odd for my liking and was bugging me and, while I didn't wake up in the bathtub filled with ice and a scar or two on my abdomen, waking up in a hotel room with no memories of how I got here was very concerning. I quickly grabbed one of the revolvers and slowly walked around the room with my thumb on the hammer and finger on the trigger, searching for any evidence of anyone else being in the room. The room was a normal and mostly empty hotel room save one large suitcase, and some clothes hanging in the closet. I returned to the bedroom and placed the hand cannon back on the nightstand.

I then decided to put some new clothes on as I was currently wearing a pair of gray shorts and a black tank top. I walked over to the closet I found clothes hanging in and put those on. The outfit I was now wearing consisted of a pair of tan combat boots, a pair of worn navy blue jeans with a black belt and a black button down shirt under a light gray vest with a dark red tie. Finally a pair of black gloves with the thumb, index and the middle fingers cut off on the right glove. I left the shirt tucked in with the sleeves rolled up to just under my elbows because it looked good with the vest and tie. As I had put the vest on, I noticed something in the right pocket and pulled out a strange device. The object opened and a screen flickered to life between the two halves and a message popped up on the screen.

 _ **Dear, Jakob Liath**_

 _ **I'm sure you are very curious as to why you have woken up in a hotel room surrounded by objects you are not familiar with and not where you had went to sleep last night. Let's just say it is for the best if you don't question it too much. All that you need to know is that you are of use here and can lead a life of significance. We will be in touch soon.**_

 _ **P.S. Don't forget you have a cab to catch at 8:40 and a flight at 9:00.**_

 _ **-Your benefactor, Wednesday**_

While the note was odd, given the fact I'm not missing vital organs and I'm armed so I think that I am not in any serious danger. I figured I'll play along for now and see what in the hell have I found myself in. I placed the guns in their holsters, grabbed the belt and walked over to the suitcase and rummaged through it to make sure their wasn't anything shady in it, then repacked it. There was enough space that I put the belt and revolvers in because I didn't want to walk out of a hotel with two guns on my hips. I looked at the clock to see it was 8:30 and out of instinct I ran my hand through my hair and felt something odd on the top of my head while a foreign sensation emanated from the top of my head as well.

I walked over to the bathroom to find out what the hell was resting on the top of my head. Upon entering the bathroom, I was greeted with my hair in a bedhead fashion and under my dark brown eyes was a slight darkness from lack of sleep. Upon closer inspection, I had noticed something sticking out of my unruly hair more specifically, there were two things sticking out; a pair of brown coyote ears that matched the color of my hair. I tentatively felt the new additions, feeling a sensation in the new set of ears as well only confirmed that they were real.

"What the actual fuck?" I asked myself as I looked at the animal ears.

Hurriedly, I fixed my hair into something decent and akin to a younger Clint Eastwood's hair from ' _A Fistful of Dollars_ '. On the topic of younger, I noticed several other things that were off. One, I was lacking the short beard that I had been growing for the past month; two, my hair was shorter and thirdly, my facial features seemed to be more youthful which also confused the hell out of me. Thankfully, I still had a nice light five o'clock shadow, although, the last time I had one was a few years back. Realizing what time it was, I quickly gathered my stuff and exited the room and made my way to the main floor.

After fully checking out of the hotel, I found the cab outside that was supposed to take me to an airport in the town, named "Luna Regional Airport". As we drove, I noticed that building in the city were very familiar designs, yet I could not find any recognizable landmarks. Signs were still written in English and the general architecture was western, yet so many things were off. However, the more I had thought about the more one idea had came to my head as to what was going on, but I clearly purged that idea from my mind for being too outlandish. The next logical idea was that this was one strange fever dream and that was an idea that I could understand and believe.

After all, how else can you explain animal ears and being somewhere else instead of being at home? Also other people walking the streets had other forms of animal parts which seemed to convince me even more that this was a dream. Combined with the fact I am armed with antique firearms that predate my home state's statehood by thirty years. After a couple minutes I had came to my destination and as I had reached into my other vest pocket for a wallet, the driver told me that I had already paid for the ride in advance. I had assumed that whoever this 'Wednesday' person had paid for the cab and the hotel before I 'woke' up... where ever here is. I entered the airport just as the device in my vest had gone off.

 _ **I hope you made it to the airport on time. You'll need the files attached to not only to board you flight, but to also be allowed to stay at your destination. We'll be in touch.**_

 _ **-Wednesday**_

I opened the first file that was sent to me to see it was a ticket for the flight and the second one was a form of identification. Almost everything on it was accurate, from date of birth, to eye color, to name, to weight and height. However, there was two things that was different which was my age was no longer 20, it was 17 and somebody must have screwed up royally with the date on this thing because it displayed August 5th as the current date instead of November 5th. However, when I opened up the final document attached I nearly couldn't believe what the title read.

 _'Beacon Academy Student Identification'_

Suddenly, it all had came to me at once: the oddly colored bullets, the animal ears, being armed with antique guns; I was having a dream I was in the RWBY universe?

Right...?

This is a dream, right...?

Fuck, this isn't a dream is it?

"Son of a bitch!" I muttered to myself.

' _This has to be a dream, right?! People don't just wake up in a whole different reality...universe...dimension...whatever the hell you wanna call it!_ ' My mind screamed.

I took a deep breath to let myself calm down. If anyone knew how I got here it had to be this Wednesday person and I would wring the answers out of them if I had to. Then, I'm going to make him send me back home, because I do not want to be involved in this shit.

Right now, I still had to catch the flight to Beacon which is were Wednesday most likely is. I quickly got through the lines and found myself waiting at a lounge near the gate that my flight was waiting at. While I waited, I had removed the pistol belt and put it on. I'm sure it looked shady as shit but nobody seemed to notice or cared. I knew that the students going to Beacon were allowed to have their weapons out and I found no need to hide it anyway.

Other people waiting around had crazy-ass weapons on them and I could never understand why anyone who just found themselves in this universe would settle for those kinds of overly complex weapons. Nor could I abide by people who don't seem to have any experience with larger and heavier weapons like battle-axes or claymores can use them properly, let alone carry them.

There are so many things to nit-pick about self insert stories that I'll just keep it simple: Don't _ever_ tell anyone you are from another world, because you'll most likely get tossed into a loony bin and also keep the weapons simple so you can use them efficiently. And these two points are ones I plan to follow to the letter, if I can't get back. It will make things so much easier. Chances are, no matter how cool your weapon is, if it takes too long to transform, reload or is too heavy, you'll end up as Grimm chow. Especially in the first few encounters with the Grimm, although I don't know how much damage a .45 will do to them either but one can hope.

On another note, I felt like the epitome of the Engineer's statement of 'Use a gun and if that doesn't work, use more guns' as I had two hand-cannons on me as well as a large quantity of bullets to feed said weapons in the belt.

"Now boarding, Flight Blue to Beacon Academy." The intercom announced and people started to walk towards the gate.

I snapped out of my internal argument over fanfics and got up and also headed over to the gate. As I approached the nice lady that was at the desk near the gate, I pulled up the ticket on the device... I guess its a scroll, but she held up her hand.

"Just place it on here." She said politely.

I smiled kindly and did as instructed and entered the gateway afterwards. After boarding the airship they took my suitcase for me and I found a seat, sat down and waited for the ship to take off. Looking around, I couldn't make out any familiar faces, but knew that I was one of the first people on and most of the people were still boarding.

After a moment or two, I thought I had noticed a familiar shaggy blonde haired boy that goes by the name of Jaune Arc. However, the more I looked at this man I came to realize that it wasn't the future leader of Team JNPR because this man had green eyes and wore different clothing. Tall people, people with similar hair color and the seer amount of bodies walking through it made it difficult to spot anyone else. There was a good amount of people currently on the airship that had very unique hair colors and styles which made it that much tougher to find anyone. It wasn't long before the ship seemed to be at full capacity and I could feel the inertia of the ship taking off.

I also tried to listen for the very recognizable voices of the main cast too, since I had superior hearing. However, it was still a difficult task because there were many conversations going on at the same time. Also, only having the new ears for less than thirty minutes doesn't mean I know how to use the superior hearing that comes with them. Although, since they are a part of my anatomy I should be able... I snapped myself out of that train of thought remembering that I don't plan on staying around so it shouldn't matter.

After, I find this "Wednesday" I'm going to politely ask them to take me back to Earth and then get more aggressive if they refuse. I really don't want to stay here because it will be very easy to get myself killed by Grimm or getting wrapped up in the plot. My chances of completely avoiding the plot are next to none due to my odds of interacting with the main cast and I am stupid enough to try to prevent or advert the Fall of Beacon. Either way, I'm going to have a hopefully nice conversation with this "Wednesday".

I decided to open my scroll and have a small little conversation with them before I had one face-to-face.

 _ **Made it on time and currently on a ship heading to Beacon, Wednesday.**_

I put the device away and closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Regardless of how this will all turn out, today is going to be a long day.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon! My name is Glynda Goodwitch." A hologram of the professor states just after it flickers to life further down the room of the airship. "You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." The projection finished and flicked off just as quickly as it appeared. What was odd was the news report about Torchwick's attempted robbery didn't appear before the speech. Chances are I just missed it while scanning the crowd.

As the hologram dissipated, the horde of people started to converge near the windows of the airship which is where I was sitting. They all took in the sights of the large city below us and I used this time to look through the crowd to try to find some familiar faces. As I scanned the people, my scroll then went off and I opened up to see a new message.

 _ **I'm glad to hear that you have made it, it would be a shame if you slept in and missed your first day at Beacon.**_

 _ **-Wednesday**_

' _At least whoever this 'Wednesday' is, they either do or are very good at pretending to care about my well being._ ' I thought as I put my scroll away. ' _Either way, its not going to stop me from beating them in to a bloody-_ ' My thoughts were interrupted by a commotion further up the room.

As the airship continued on its course, I saw Beacon come into view out of the corner of my eye. Suddenly, I found myself gazing out the window to see that we were hundreds of feet in the air. I felt my body tense up slightly as I realize how high we are and how close I was to a window. I let myself calm and got up from my seat and stood near the center of the room as we began to approach Beacon. I could feel the airship beginning to descend which had caused my footing to be a little rough. Then, the airship came to a mildly sudden stop and everyone rocked with the motion of the ship. People began to funnel towards the doors and I followed suit and found myself at the exit of the airship.

I found myself at the exit of the airship and as I took my first step back on to real ground, I felt my legs turn to jello for a second then give out. In the span of a second, I went from standing up and looking like a badass, to being face first on the ground looking like a newborn deer trying to walk.

"I guess I'll just die here." I muttered to myself before I got off of the floor.

Thankfully, there wasn't anyone around to notice because I must have been the last person off of the airship, so my pride remains intact.

"Are you alright?" A voice behind me inquires.

Or maybe not.

I quickly dusted myself off, trying to look better before turning to face the new arrival. Standing in front of me was a young woman who stood about 6' tall, which was an inch or two taller than me. She had short dark brown hair that had caramel colored locks that were longer with a black beret. Her eyes were covered by a pair of aviator sunglasses, her outfit consisted of a long light brown shirt, dark brown waist cincher, a pair of black gloves without the index fingers, dark brown pants with a brown belt that had a crosshair buckle with a black quarter skirt and bullets attached. Finally, she wore a pair of black high heels and had a hand bag slung over her shoulder with a massive quantity of bullets attached along the strap.

The young woman who was standing in front of me was none other than the fashion oriented leader of Team CFVY, Coco Adel. However, my brain ceased functioning for a second to admire her beauty before my brain regained control. I had mastered controlling my hormones when I was... well, the last time I was seventeen.

"Y-yeah, just not used to flying on airships I guess." However, that didn't stop me from feeling embarrassed from eating shit in front of an attractive girl.

"Are you sure you're not used to walking?" Coco teased, sliding down her glasses.

"Funny." I muttered before continuing to walk towards the academy.

As I walked, I heard the clicking of heels as Coco caught up with me. "I didn't bruise your ego too much, did I?"

"No, my ego has been non-existent for a while." I joked, to which Coco let out a small chuckle.

"At least, you're a good sport... with moderate fashion senses." She stated pulling her shades down again. "Anyways, I'm Coco."

"Jakob Liath." I responded, extending my hand out for a handshake. "And I'll ignore the fashion comment."

She returned the handshake. "Don't be jealous of my superior taste, cowboy. Either way, I'll see you around." Coco then continued past me and towards the academy.

' _Do the second, third and fourth years also take the airship back each year?_ ' I thought as I watched Coco walk away. ' _They have to. After all, she is wearing the same outfit in Volume 2 and 3._ '

I then started to walk towards the academy. As I did, I took in the sheer size of Beacon and was in awe at the castle-like layout of it. The closest thing to a castle that I've personally been to was Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California and that wasn't as large and grandiose as Beacon appears to be. The whole area had to be at least be close to a square mile with some of the buildings being five or six stories and the architecture had to be at least several decades old.

Finally, after walking while I was admiring Beacon's architecture I had arrived at the amphitheater where the other students were waiting for Ozpin to give his speech. I quickly found a spot in the crowd and also waited for the Headmaster. I then took the time to send a message to "Wednesday".

 _ **We need to have a face-to-face talk, soon.**_

I then closed my scroll and waited for a response or for Ozpin to come up. A few moments later, I felt the scroll buzz and I quickly retrieved it and opened the device.

 _ **Yes we do, and we will after the speech.**_

 _ **-Wednesday**_

' _I'm glad we see things eye to eye at least._ ' I dryly thought to myself. The crowd of students slowly got thicker as more and more entered the auditorium and waited for the opening speech. There was a huge influx of students as I soon found myself shoulder to shoulder with others and people were trying to worm their way though. It thankfully wasn't long before someone tapped on the microphone and the room quieted down.

Ozpin then gave an opening speech, but I was too busy having a revelation. Out of all the possible people to bring my dumbass across dimensions, it had to be either Ozpin or Salem and since I ended up with papers admitting me to Beacon I knew who was responsible. Of course that gray haired bastard is behind all of this, which means he definitely has the means to bring me back to Earth. Even if he's a powerful, centuries old wizard I still intend on making him send me back by any means necessary.

The speech had finished and the crowd started to disperse. While this was happening, I pulled out my scroll and sent another message to 'Wednesday'.

 _ **It's time we had that chat.**_

It didn't take to long before I got a reply.

 _ **Yes it is, I'll be out by the statues in the courtyard.**_

However, before I received the message, I had been watching Ozpin walk down from the stage and he never seemed to have pulled out his scroll. Also, Ozpin didn't seem to be walking in the direction of the courtyard.

' _Well, fuck, there goes my guess._ ' I cynically thought to myself as I walked back towards the courtyard.

It didn't take long before I found myself at the statues and waited for 'Wednesday' to show up. I quickly looked around the area and found no one else outside; neither teacher nor student.

"It's nice to finally talk face to face, Jakob Liath." An older voice called out from behind me.

Quickly, I spun around startled with both of my hands on my sidearms. No less then five feet in front of me was an elderly man, dressed in a sharp black suit, with a white dress shirt and red tie as well as a black wide brim hat. He had grayed hair with a long grayed beard, one blue with an eye-patch over the other eye. In his right hand he had a staff that had two bird heads at the top.

"You and I have a lot to discuss." The old man stated.

"I couldn't agree more." I said through my teeth.

"Being hostile will get you nowhere. I understand this isn't an ideal situation, but at least listen to what I have to say first."

"And why should I?!" I asked, feeling my patience running thin already.

"I have the offer you have been looking for all your life: a meaningful purpose."

I couldn't formulate an appropriate response, so I stood quietly and let myself calm down.

"From a young age you've been searching for something to make your life more meaningful. You still have ambitions to join the military in the hopes to help others, even if it cost you your life. You have been trying to find a calling that gives you a chance to help or save others. Are you not?" The old man asked, cocking his eyebrow.

I couldn't deny what he said without being a liar. I wanted to have done something with my life that I could look back on and feel that I may have made a difference.

"Now, here you are with an opportunity that you will never find again in your life. However, that isn't the only reason I have brought you here. As you are aware, there is a secret war waging between Ozpin, professor of this academy and Salem that has mainly been fought between proxies. So there lies the reason why you are here; help Ozpin by eliminating Salem's proxies." Wednesday explained.

"You brought me here to kill?"

"Don't tell me that breaks a rule of your moral code. You of all people here on Remnant understand how vile those people are. You know what they are planning and the ramifications of their actions, after all sometimes the best way to save lives it to take them."

Again, Wednesday's reasoning wasn't too off from mine and I agreed with what he had to say. However, even with the solid reasoning this wasn't an easy choice and it took a minute or two of weighing the options.

"Alright, I'll help, but once I've dealt with them I want you to take me back to when I left." I stated, after letting out a long sigh.

"I can't guarantee that you'll kill all of her associates or you'll want to go back. Either way, you have a deal." He stated as he reached his hand out for a handshake.

"Good." I returned his handshake.

"Now, I believe you have a tour to take. However, the next time we talk, you'll have to refer to me as Professor Wednesday." He said as he walked away.

' _Of course, he is a professor here. What else did I expect._ ' I spoke to myself as I returned to the auditorium.


	2. Chapter 2: Why You Don't Make Deals

Chapter 2: Why You Shouldn't Make Stupid Deals

* * *

It didn't take too long for me to find the rest of the students and join in the tour of the academy. Most of the day was taken up by going around to the important buildings of the campus such as the dorms, the library, the classrooms and finally we ended up in the cafeteria for dinner. Currently, I was sitting at a relatively empty table with a hamburger and a plate of fries in front of me. I was surprised at Beacon's choice of food, because I would have expected a lot more healthy foods considering the training. Either way, I couldn't complain, because the food was incredible either from the great cooking or my tastes were better from being a Faunus.

"E-excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?"An Australian accented voice called out.

I turned to my left to see another young woman, this time with long hair down to her lower back. On top of her head was a pair of brown rabbit ears, that also matched with her brown eyes. She wore a short, long-sleeved brown jacket that came down to just below the chest with a golden zipper, brown shorts with golden detail and leggings that consist of two parts: a pair of dark-brown shorts and a pair of black form fitting leggings that come to just below her hips. She wears a black, form fitting shirt under her jacket, along with golden shoulder armor and vambraces, as well as a similar belt, with armor on her heels and toes. Attached to the belt at the back was a brown box with gold bordering and a handle at the top. An fan of the show would recognize the Faunus in front of me as Velvet Scarlatina, another future member of Team CFVY.

"Yeah, go ahead." I replied.

Velvet timidly sat down further down to my left and started eating her food which consisted of various fruits and vegetables. She seemed like she wanted to eat quickly and leave, possibly due to the fear of being picked on for being a Faunus. I can't say I could blame her. I continued to eat my food in peace as well... at least I was.

"I thought the sobakas ate outside." A thick Russian voice called out.

I looked up from my plate of food to see a young man standing across the table from me. The man had short, near buzz cut length dirty blonde hair, a pair of deep blue eyes with a pale complexion and built like a tank. He wore a pair of knee high black leather boots with a pair of brownish tan cargo pants with the legs tucked into the boots with a similarly colored short sleeve button up shirt with a white undershirt. The shirt had red shoulder straps with gold stitching and red cloth around his neck. He had a brown belt that had two batons attached to it as well as a few pouches of similar color.

At first I was curious to as to why this guy was so antagonistic, then I remembered that when I got brought to Remnant I had been turned into a Faunus. I took a breath to calm myself and went back to eating, trying to ignore this asshole. The aggressor scoffed before walking off. It seemed like he wanted me to say something back, probably looking for a fight. As he walked away, he seemed to be muttering something to himself.

"Was that man harassing you, Velvet?" A calm and stoic voice asked.

Looking back over to my left, I saw a towering mountain of a man; easily seven feet. The man had shaved short black hair, dark brown eyes with tanned skin. He wore a long short-sleeved robe, a 5-layer sode on the left shoulder, over a black muscle shirt. The robe was fastened at the waist by a leather armored belt with two pouches on it. He also wore brown pants and black boots with green armor over the shins as well as arm bracers with black gloves that had green armor on the top of the hand. Attached to his back by a brown leather strap was a giant bronze great-sword that had a hook at the tip. This behemoth of a man was Yatsuhashi Daichi, another member of the future Team CFVY.

"Oh Yatsuhashi! No, he wasn't bothering me." Velvet said as Yatsuhashi sat down next to her.

The two began to talk amongst themselves, as if they had known each other for a while. Which, could explain why Yatsuhashi seems protective of her in the show... or a year or so from now. This whole scenario was confusing and was making me regret this decision, but I guess there was no turning back.

"Hey there, cowboy." A familiar voice called out.

Looking back up, I saw Coco with a tray of food as well along side a man I'd never seen before. The man next to her was easily about 5'8" with combed dark green hair, pale-green eyes and fair skin. He wore a pair of brown leather boots with a pair of khaki dress pants, olive drab dress shirt, tan tie underneath an olive green greatcoat that had brown stitching. Over the coat was a black belt with a sword with a pistol as the hilt on his right hip. The man's posture was that of proper upbringing, however it was missing the typical smugness of most privileged people.

"Coco." I greeted with a nod.

"Is it alright if we sit here?" Coco asked glancing down at the table.

I gestured to the empty space next to me. "Be my guest."

The two sat down and placed their trays of food on the table. "Thanks. Oh, I forgot! Jakob, this is Oliver Von Grun. Oliver, this is Jakob Liath." Coco introduced as she gestured to each of us.

I reach out to shake his hand, which he returned and exchanged greetings.

"You said this is the man with moderate fashion taste, Coco?" Oliver stated.

"Please, Oliver, I told him that when I first met him, so you can't get me in trouble." Coco replied with a smirk.

A sly smile came to Oliver's face. "Did you not call him, and I quote, 'cute'?"

Coco stopped dead and looked at her friend with an eyebrow cocked and sunglasses down. "Touche."

"Uh..." I let out in confusion and slight embarrassment.

"Oh, don't worry Jakob. It just an old game the two of us play." Coco said.

"What game is that? Make someone you met uncomfortable?"

"No."

"Yes."

Oliver and Coco answered respectively, at the same time. Coco again had a mischievous smirk on her face after replying. ' _Great, I'll have to deal with her antics._ ' I sarcastically thought as I tried to finish my food.

"Are you okay?" Coco asked, eyebrow quirked.

I hummed in confusion as my mouth was full of hamburger at the moment.

"You seem upset." Oliver added.

"Oh, I'm fine. I was just in thought." I stated before returning to my food.

"Care to share your thoughts with us?" Oliver asked, after taking a bite of his food.

"Just thinking about tomorrow and what Professor Ozpin has waiting for us." While not necessarily a lie, it wasn't the whole truth either.

"I'm sure it won't be too hard, well maybe not for you." Coco joked.

To be honest, I enjoyed her attitude as it reminded me of some of my friends.

"Bet I'll kill more Grimm than you." I knew full well that wouldn't be the case, but I had to talk trash back.

"Want to make it an actual bet, cowboy?" Coco asked in a serious tone.

' _Well, shit. Me and my big fucking mouth._ '

"Depends."

"On the stakes?" She asked to which I nodded. "Oh, good question. How about loser is subject to ten questions, that way we get to know each other." She added with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

' _Well, at least it isn't anything too embarrassing._ '

"Deal."

* * *

After I had finished my food, I excused myself and left the cafeteria to go to the locker rooms. Once there, I found the locker I had been assigned, locker 216, and placed my gun belt and revolvers in there. As I was about to shut the door, I noticed something in the locker besides my luggage from earlier that looked like a small book. I grabbed the book and looked at the front cover: ' _Starship Troopers_ '. I opened the cover to see a hand written note.

 _I figured you wanted something from home while you were at Beacon._

 _-Wednesday_

At least Wednesday knew that I had wanted to read this book, but never found it at libraries in town nor did I find time to buy it. I placed the book back and changed into my sleepwear which was a pair of gray sweatpants and a black muscle shirt and grabbed the sleeping bag from the locker and walked to the ballroom which wasn't far at all. I quickly found a spot near the wall and unrolled my sleeping bag and started to turn in for the night. Thankfully, it didn't take long for the exhaustion of a long day to overtake me and I fell asleep.

* * *

Ozpin sat quietly in his office reading over student files with a cup of coffee in his hand. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until he came across the file of Jakob Liath. Most of the file seemed pretty basic, however upon entering his name into the CCT Ozpin found nothing on the student. No birth certificate, no records attaching him to any of the institutions the file said Jakob attended which had worried the Headmaster.

"I take it this is your doing?" Ozpin looked up at the only other occupant in the room.

"Yes. Don't tell me you disapprove, Oz." Wednesday shot back.

"I am simply curious as to where you found him. According to the database-"

"You know full well where I found him."

Ozpin sighed while removing his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Wednesday."

"Don't 'Wednesday' me. You understand that this feud between you and Salem is reaching a boiling point and we need all the help we can get."

"This is true, however that does not make it moral to take someone from their home to fight for a cause that is not theirs." Ozpin calmly stated.

Wednesday walked up to Ozpin's desk and put both hands on the glass table top. "Since when did you ever care about morality, Oz? How many people have you lied to for your own goals? How many people have you gotten killed for your goals?"

Ozpin stood up, putting his glasses back on. "You understand what my goals are and how important they are."

"Which is exactly why I brought him."

The two stood in silence before Ozpin let out a sigh in resignation. "I hope it works."

"Believe me, so do I."

* * *

 _Forest. I was in a lush forest with tall trees and thick vegetation. I had to be in Northern Arizona as there was pine trees everywhere and was the closest place with pine trees. I walked around aimlessly, trying to find a way through the forest. However, there wasn't a sound made by anything, no birds, no animals, nor any sound from my feet crushing pine. Finally two sounds were heard, the sound of thunder and the neigh of a horse. I turned around to see that amongst the bushes was a reddish-brown horse rearing on its hind legs, then looked at me before trotting away._

* * *

My eyes slowly opened to be greeted by the bright orange light of the sun entering through the windows I was facing. Looking around, I was disappointed to wake up on Remnant and not back in my bed on Earth. I rubbed my face to wake myself up, before sitting up and stretching. Quickly, I got out of my sleeping bag rolled it up and walked back to the locker room to change. Once changed, I then headed to the cafeteria for breakfast knowing I would need the energy for today.

Thankfully, the morning had passed peacefully and I was back in the locker room putting my gun belt back on. I then took the revolvers, emptied them and checked the cylinders and the barrel before reloading the weapons and holstering them. I then closed the locker and waited for us to get called to the cliffs. As I waited, I had unconsciously removed one revolver from my holster and began to spin it and holster it over and over. It was something I did when I was younger with toys and with a prop Colt 1873 when I got bored. Realizing that I was doing it, I quickly did one last spin before finally holstering the revolver.

"You seem quite talented at that." A soft French accented voice called out from my right.

Turning to meet the new arrival, I saw a young girl with a rosy complexion, curly shoulder length auburn hair with similarly colored eyes and about half a foot shorter than me. She wore a pair of red laced black knee high boots, a knee length red and black checkered skirt with a crimson button up shirt. Over the shirt was a bandolier filled with large caliber rounds and a rifle attached to the back that looked similar to a repeating action.

"Eh, its nothing more than something to entertain myself with." I replied.

The girl giggled. "You remind me of that actor, Flint Eastwood. Except younger."

"Thank you."

"Ah, where are my manners." The woman mumbled to herself. "Annabelle Rogue, but I prefer Anna." She introduced as she curtsied.

"Jakob Liath." I said, giving a slight bow.

"Liath? You wouldn't happen to be from Solitas too?"

"No, my family was but I born in Vacuo." I lied after taking the time to think of a place similar to Arizona.

 **'Will all first year students please report to the cliffs.'** The speaker crackled with the sound of Wednesday's voice.

' _Odd._ ' I thought expecting to hear Goodwitch's voice.

"I guess I'll see you later." I said, waving.

"Adieu, Jakob."

* * *

The walk from the lockers to the cliffs took a little while and I did almost get lost but thankfully, I found some other students and followed them. Once there, we were instructed by Ozpin to stand on the metal squares which I knew were launching pads. I noticed to my left was Coco, Yatsuhasi and Velvet while on my right was Oliver, the big Russian idiot and Anna. As we stood around, I started to panic on the inside. I just realized that I didn't have my Aura unlocked and here I was about to be catapulted into a demon monster infested forest with centuries old firearms. That asshole Wednesday probably forgot about it or maybe he wants me to become a red paste on the forest floor.

"For years, you have been training to become warriors which will tested in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin opened after the rest of the students arrived.

"I'm certain by know you have heard rumors as to team assignments. Well, you're in luck as you will be given teammates today." Wednesday stated as he walked up.

"You will be with these teammates for the rest of the four years at this academy, so it would be smart to find someone you can work well with. With that being said, the first person you make eye contact with once your in the forest will be your partner." Ozpin further explained.

I heard a suppressed laugh from my right. Looking over to see a young man, just over six foot with dark skin and dark, messy copper hair and pure white eyes. He wore a sleeveless, orange vest with black lining and a high collar and a pair of black jeans, with brown shoes. He also had a pair of long black gloves and has several pouches attached to his belt. Attached to his arms were gauntlets that had long blades running up the arm. This was the final member of Team CFVY, Fox Alistar, and he currently was waving his hand in front of his face which was causing Anna to laugh.

"Once you have your partner, you will make your way to the northern end of the forest. There will be plenty of Grimm in your way so do not hesitate. There is a temple at the end of the road that has several artifacts; retrieve one and return to the cliffs. You are being monitored and graded on your performance, but you will receive no help from the staff." Wednesday explained while sending a pointed gaze my way.

"Any questions?" Ozpin asked but the line of students was silent. "Good. Now, take your positions."

Everyone got into some sort of stance and began to prepare themselves for the initiation. I heard the metal plates spring alive one after the other, and that further increased my growing anxiety. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Velvet was shot out. Then Yastuhashi. Then Coco. I quickly braced myself for being launched through the air.

…

I opened my eyes to see myself still at the cliff, but the other pads were still launching people.

"It appears there is a malfunction this your pad, Mister Liath." Ozpin remarked with a sly grin.

Wednesday walked up to me once the last pad catapulted the student underneath it and placed his hand on my chest. "Close your eyes and relax. For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee." Wednesday recited and I felt something wash over my body.

As I slowly opened my eyes, I saw a faint gray glow move over my entire body. "Thank you, Wednesdayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

The platform shot me more than a hundred feet in a hand full of seconds. I was soaring through the air, nearly hundreds of feet above the tree tops. I quickly tried to keep my nerves in check and not panic as to not end up as a pancake. One thing I soon noticed was I had started to flip head over heels just as Jaune had, thankfully I knew the solution. I placed my arms and legs out to create drag to stop the flipping. As I had hoped for, I had stopped flipping and was sailing through the air at a reasonable rate. However, the ground and more immediate, the trees were getting closer. Before I could formulate a plan, I hit just about every branch possible being ping-ponged off of each branch I hit on to the next. Then, there were no branches and I landed on the ground back first, nearly knocking the air out of me.

"Oh, son of a bitch." I groaned, rolling over on to my stomach.

I pushed my self up into a kneeling position and inhaled deeply. As far as I could tell, there wasn't any major trauma to my lungs as they seemed to work like normal. Then, the next thing I thought about was my guns. Quickly, I placed my hands at my hips thankfully feeling both revolvers in their proper places. I let out a sigh of relief before drawing both and cocking the hammers. I looked up through the tree line to get an idea where the sun is; finding it in the direction I had landed from. Using the sun as reference, I began to walk to the left of my landing spot which should be North.

The forest seemed relatively empty of most wildlife as well as Grimm and people. It was rather peaceful yet also terrifying that I hadn't found anything. Either way, I continued on my way, eventually finding the path heading towards the temple. I still had both handguns drawn with the hammers cocked, waiting for something. A twig snapped behind me, causing me to whip around with both revolvers aimed at the source of the sound. I was met by red eyes, however they weren't the eyes of a Grimm; the pair of eyes I saw were human, and they had fear in them.

"Christ, Anna! You scared the shit out of me." I said holstering the weapons.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you." She said softly.

"It's alright, I guess I'm just jumpy." I said, trying to ease her. "I also guess we're partners."

"Qui, partners." She seemed calmed by that and started walking towards me and put her hand out for handshake, which I returned.

"I let you out of my sight for a day and you're already cheating on me." A new voice called out in the most overdramatic way possible. "I'm hurt Jakob Liath."

"Oh, wait! Its not like that." Anna quickly stated, waving her arms around.

I placed a hand on Anna's shoulder to comfort her. "Coco, can you not give my partner a heart attack, please." I said, turning to meet the fashionista.

"You're no fun." She stated plainly as she and Fox walked up to us.

"I-I don't understand." Anna admitted.

"Coco has a bad habit of teasing people." I replied, sending a pointed stare at the girl in question.

Coco seemed to catch on that Anna wasn't used to her kind of teasing. "I'm only joking around; nothing serious."

"Oh, okay." Anna stated, still confused by the situation.

"I think we should get moving." Fox stated as he began walking and we shortly followed.

"So, Jakob, how many Grimm have you killed so far." Coco asked.

I sighed. "I haven't seen any, yet."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Maybe you're all talk and good looks."

I scoffed at the remark and continued to watch the forest ahead of me. However, I could feel my body heat up by a degree or two by the second half of Coco's comment. Thankfully, it didn't last long and I refocused myself on the forest and drew the revolver on my right hip. As we made our way through the forest, there were several hissing sounds around us. Slowly emerging from the bushes, were twelve velociraptor-like Grimm that surrounded us.

Normally, I would have used the line "Clever Girl" but seeing demonic raptors had severely impaired my capacity for rational thought. I felt anxiety and trepidation rise in me as the Grimm slowly began to circle us. My hands slowly began to tremble as well.

' _Deep breaths. You can't afford to panic now, you'll get these people around you killed. Maybe, I'll get them killed regardless. Stop! You've already committed yourself to this life so you need to fight for it. Even if this is the end, die taking as many of them with you as possible._ ' I mentally argued with myself.

Taking the deep breaths, I then slowly brought up both revolvers and aimed them at one of the raptors in front of me. I noticed my hands were slightly shaking, but after another deep breath and closing my eyes the shaking had subsided.

' _Stay calm and you'll live._ '

I reopened my eyes and slowly began applying pressure on the triggers until my hand kicked violently from the recoil. The two bullets stuck the bone mask of the raptor Grimm and did a small amount of damage. Quickly, I cocked the hammers again and fired this time, striking the beast's neck causing to reel back and scream. By this time the others began firing or in Fox's case slashing at the Grimm. Using the right revolver only this time, I pulled back on the hammer, aimed and fired. The raptor stumbled back and fell on to the ground.

The other two in my vision then started to run at me and I started to lift both weapons up, but I could tell they would be to fast for me to handle. They were coming from either side of me and would easily be on me in a matter of seconds. Just as I had started to apply pressure to the triggers, everything around my slowed down to a crawl. I saw that my right hand had electricity going up and down it, which caused me to turn my arm to inspect it.

What surprised me was that my arm was moving at a normal pace while everything else was a snail's pace. I quickly aimed at the raptor's neck and fired, being able to see the bullet fly through the air but only for a second before it struck its mark. I then turned my head to my left, which now had the electricity running over it, and aimed in the same spot and fired. Time then slowly picked up its speed and while the shots had killed the Grimm, they still kept their speed and both slammed into me, knocking me to the ground.

As I pushed myself off of the ground, I could feel slightly worn but not from being hit by two Grimm carcasses. I then grabbed my guns which had fallen out of my hand and aimed around to find that the other Grimm had been dealt with. As I started to stand up, a hand reach down to help me up. I holstered my weapons then grabbed the hand and got back on to my feet, thanks to Anna.

"Thank you." I said, smiling.

"You're welcome." She replied, returning the smile.

"I take back my previous statement. You did good." Coco stated.

"Thank you-" I stopped abruptly as I felt a hand smack me on the behind.

"Good Hustle."


	3. Chapter 3: Murphy's Law

Chapter 3: Murphy's Law

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the long gap between last chapter and this one, college had swamped me and I prioritized my schoolwork. I also took the time to plan out my story a little bit more and come up with somethings that hopefully will be original.**

 **Also, thank you guys for the support so far. I was not expecting this story to have this kind of a following in its first few chapters.**

* * *

"Was that really necessary, Coco?"

"Yes. Absolutely necessary, Jakob."

"I don't think it was."

"How else was I supposed to show my appreciation for your hard work."

"A simple 'good job' or 'great work' would do, not slapping my ass."

Coco simply smirked while shrugging her shoulders before returning to looking in ahead of her.

"You two have been arguing for the past five minutes and I'd wish you stop." Anna said from behind me.

"I wouldn't consider it arguing, maybe bickering. Either way both of you should shut up about it." Fox stated bluntly.

The two of us were silent after both our partners voiced their displeasure about the conversation. I too didn't like the whole conversation, but I still wanted to know why Coco did what she did. I took a deep breath, realizing it didn't matter in the long run and continued to focus on the forest in front of us. I had also remembered I was in a forest full of monsters that are attracted to negative emotions and I had started to get annoyed with the conversation. There would be a good chance if that argument continued I would start bringing Grimm to us, making this even more difficult.

As I watched the woods ahead of us, I couldn't help but think that this place would be a nice place to camp out for a weekend, if it wasn't filled with Grimm. I had camped in similar forests in northern Arizona, with the major difference was those were pine trees and these are some form of oak trees. Either way it was a beautiful sight, when not having to deal with demonic monsters.

"Jakob." Hearing my name, I quickly snapped myself out of my thoughts.

"Yeah."

I turned around to see everyone had stopped several feet behind me and Anna was looking at me and pointed up. Just above me, clinging on a tree branch was a young woman, with long messy brunette hair with single streak of white, a pair of bright blue eyes and fair skin with a pair of welding goggles on her forehead. She was wearing a white lab coat that had wires running from her back to her arms which fed into gloves and gauntlets that had miniature Tesla coils on them. Under the coat was a faded green shirt with a pair of skinny blue jeans and a pair of black and white high top sneakers.

"Uh, hello! I seemed to have miscalculated my fall and I... uh... do not know how to get down." The girl stated, a little bit embarrassed.

"Are you alright?" Anna asked.

"N-no, I am stuck to a tree a dozen feet in the air in a forest filled with Grimm."

"I think she meant are you okay, physically." I stated, putting emphasis on physically.

"Oh, that would make more sense!" The girl stated to herself. "Yes, I am unharmed."

' _Well, looks like we have another Penny._ ' I commented dryly to myself.

"We'll try to get you down." Coco said looking around for a way to do just that.

"Actually, now that you guys are here I do have a way down."

Just as I opened my mouth to ask what her plan was, she had let go of the branch and fell down and landed on top of me. I was on my back, with no air in my lungs and this lunatic of a woman laying on top of me while I was desperately attempting to breathe; border line spasming.

"Oh! I can fix that!" The girl yelled before smacking my chest as hard as she could. Thankfully, air came back into my body.

"Why?" I groaned.

"Can you please get off my partner?" Anna asked as she walked over.

"Partner? Oh, I am sorry about that! I did not mean to land on your partner in such a compromising way." The girl said as she got off of me with a slight blush.

Anna reached out to help me get back on my feet.

"You okay?" Coco asked me.

I simply groaned in response as I was hoisted back up and as everything began to hurt again.

"He should only have minor bruises." The girls stated happily and dismissive.

"You should've given him a warning before you fell on my friend." Coco stated with an undertone of anger.

"I am so sorry! I have a tendency to act without really thinking or talking it over with others." The girl spoke fast this time and seemed to be genuinely apologetic.

The four of us looked at this girl in confusion at her drastic change in attitude followed by us looking at each other. Each of us had the look of ' _Something is wrong with her_ ', even Fox with his seemingly stoic attitude. I simply shrugged it off and extended my hand out towards the girl for a handshake.

"Jakob Liath."

The girl's mood again changed before she enthusiastically shook my hand. "I am Nikita Stark."

"Nice to meet you." I replied, still off put by her change in attitude.

Nikita then began to walk in the direction we were originally going without a single word. I instinctively shot Coco a look with one eyebrow raised to which she responded by shrugging her shoulders. The group then followed Nikita who had stopped to let the rest of us catch up and the five of us continued our journey through the forest. Our eyes kept a careful watch on the forest for any sign of Grimm as we made our way towards the temple.

* * *

The forest seemed too quiet for my liking and has been like that for close to ten minutes now. Not a single Grimm, person, bird call or even the rustling of leaves from the wind or the crunch of dirt with each step. It was very disconcerting and left me on edge, thankfully the others had also taken notice and were off put by it too.

' _At least you aren't going crazy, yet._ ' I spoke to myself.

"Wait!" Nikita yelled, the look of realization plastering her face. "Do any of you have feel a dull... something in the back of your heads?"

"A dull something. Really descriptive." I commented dryly, still upset over being used to soften a fall.

"Sarcasm is unbecoming of you. I am sorry I can not be more descriptive, but this is important." The second sentence was said in the most serious tone I have heard from this girl yet.

Everyone took a moment to try to see if we felt something unusual.

"Excuse me." A new voice called. Turning to our left we saw a man, easily six foot tall, short light brown hair with a pair of blue eyes. He wore a pair of blue and gray sneakers, a pair of black jeans that had tears in the knees, a faded gray t-shirt under a blue trench coat. Also under the trench coat was shoulder holsters, however those appeared to be empty. "My friend needs help."

The tone of the man was that of concern, however that didn't settle a growing sense of dread. While his voice had concern his facial feature and body language did not, as his movement wasn't frantic, his eyes weren't wide open and most odd of all was he was unarmed. As I had mused to myself, I felt a numbness and cold sensation in the back of my head come then quickly go. My gut was now screaming at me to run, to get as far away from here as I could, while my brain said to take the time to investigate further. After a few seconds of internal conflict, I decided to find out more about this situation.

"W-where is your friend?" I asked, trying to reign in my trepidation.

The man took a second before answering. "Back this way."

Again the voice seemed right, but everything else felt wrong. He also, gave no arm gestures as most people normally do when saying something is behind them. He also seemed to not have a sense of urgency if his friend was in trouble as he just stood there. Thankfully after looking at the others, they also seemed to be disturbed and suspicions just as I was with their weapons ready.

"Watch his mouth." Nikita whispered to me, which caused me to look at her quizzically. "Trust me." I took a second to think it over before nodding in agreement.

"What happened to him?" Nikita asked.

Again there was a pause before the man responded. "She was attacked by the Grimm." Ignoring the man using 'she' instead of 'he' I had watched the man's mouth move and it moved asynchronous to what he said.

' _A weird sensation in your head, no other sounds except for your voices and this creepy motherfucker, there is some mind fuck games going on._ ' I thought.

"What the fuck is going on." I muttered to myself.

As I was looking at the others for their input, I had noticed that there was a blurry figure moving towards us and as it got closer it became slightly clear revealing it as Velvet who appeared to be on the verge of panicking.

" _Wake up, please wake up._ "

* * *

My eyes slowly opened as I felt myself being shaken. The first think I was a fuzzy pair of brown eyes filled with panic as they frantically looked me over. Someone was trying to pull me to my feet, however I was unable to even move even with the persons help. My vision hadn't recovered from the... dream and things were blurry, out of focus or just blurry. Looking around I saw the general shapes of trees, bushes and other people strewn about; some standing and others on the ground.

"Big guy, can you carry her. You help me get this shit off of him." I heard Coco's voice call out somewhere in front of me.

I could feel a sticky slime-like substance over my waist and my hands and it being removed from me. After the last of it was off of me, I was hoisted to my feet and moved away from my previous spot by one of the people. My vision slowly recovered and I could see things much clearer, yet a slight blurriness remained. I was in the middle of a clearing with the temple a bit in the distance with Anna, Fox and Oliver watching the surroundings, Yatsuhashi picking up an unconscious Nikita and placing her over his shoulder with Velvet checking over the poor girl. On the ground, caught in a slimy web was the man from the... dream I had earlier and he looked to be in very bad condition, with several deep cuts.

"Anna, Fox where is it?!" Coco yelled as she helped my stay on my feet.

"S-somewhere out here. I t-think it will come back soon so we should hurry." Anna said, her rifle shaking due to her fear.

I could everyone else was petrified by whatever 'it' was which was most likely what caused my hallucination.

"We need to leave." Oliver asserted.

"What about him?" Velvet asked pointing to the other victim of what happened to me. "We can't just leave him."

"Jakob, can you walk by yourself?" Oliver inquired.

"Yes." I replied, also knowing what he was going to ask of me next.

I walked back over to the man and with the help of Velvet pulled the slime shit off, trying to keep my breakfast down as this shit smelled and felt like goo, play-doh and jell-o all mixed into one. Once he was free, I decided to carry him with the help of Velvet and the group started to make their way away from the temple. I though this was odd as we never retrieved the relics and were close by, but then again we needed to get the hell out of here. The nine of us were going as fast as we could with one knocked out and one too wounded to walk on their own. As we made our way, a pack of Beowolves formed on the path ahead of us and slowly approached us. Coco unveiled her minigun again and opened fire, cutting the pack down to pieces before we carried on.

"Hey-y..." The man I was carrying called out looking at me. "You'll need a w-weapon."

I went to grab my left revolver with my free hand only to find it covered in the slime and essentially glued to the holster. The man motioned with his head to the two handguns in his holsters. I reached over and drew one to find it was a nickle-platted Model No. 3 Schofield revolver with pearl white grips, and thank God it was. Being a top-break meant I could reload it far faster than the two Colt's I would be using if they weren't cocooned in slime.

"I'll give this back." I said. "Thank you."

More Grimm began to flank us, and everyone who could began shooting at them including myself. As a Beowolf charged me from my right, I aimed the revolver fired, cocked fired again and it dropped dead a few feet from me. We were making decent ground despite our situation and Coco and Oliver were calling out Grimm as they appeared and attacked. Anna was the one to take out most of them with her rifle, however after she took out a few more she then flipped her gun around and jerked it forward and the weapon transformed into a poleaxe with the stock becoming the axe head.

"We need to s-stop soon!" Velvet said after the Beowolf was dealt with. "He's really bad a-and we need to t-tend to him."

"We might not have a good time to stop if that thing is still on our ass." Coco stated.

"B-but he could die." Velvet said, pleading.

"He'll die if we stop." I added. "If we can get him to the cliffs, we can get help for him."

"I a-appreciate the effort... but I'm slowing... you all down." The man said, wincing with each step and slowed speech from blood loss.

Looking over the man, I saw that his left leg had a serious cut on the thigh and was bleeding profusely. From what little I know of the human anatomy, the largest artery in the body runs through the left leg and the cut seems deep enough that is could have nicked it at least, or completely severed it. I knew that this kind of blood loss would kill a person in a short amount of time unless they got serious medical attention. I took a deep breath and cussed in my mind, knowing we didn't have the time to make it to the cliff, scale it and fly him back to Beacon as he must have been wounded far before I saw him.

' _No! You can't afford to discount this man as dead based on assumption. You need to try to save this man._ ' I thought, attempting to motivate myself.

"I think therefor I am." Yatsuhashi quoted in his stoic nature. "If you think you'll die then you'll die."

The group still trekked forward, intent on reaching the cliffs before its too late. However as we made out way, I felt the odd sensation from the hallucination and this time, I felt terrified beyond anytime else before. I was on the verge of dropping this guy and running as fast as I could, but I held on to the man's arm that was around my shoulders and my weapon tighter.

"Shit, its behind us!" Oliver called out as he transformed his sword into its pistol mode and began firing past me.

Of course, stupid curiosity had gotten the better of me in a split second decision as I turned my head around to face 'it', which was something straight out of H.R. Giger's art. The Grimm was close to seven feet tall, very skinny and lanky with crude bone platting in random places and was very humanoid up until its face. The creature had wide completely black eyes, no mouth and a bone mask that had blood red markings and oblong head. The body looked oddly feminine and also appeared to have tendrils sprouting out of the back that looked like wings. As I looked at it, it noticed me and the black abyss of its eyes became pools of solid blood red.

"Oh, fuck no." I muttered to myself as I felt my heart rate and breathing pick up. "Fuck no, I am not dealing with this shit."

As I began to hit peak panic status, Coco dropped back to me and wrapped her arm around my neck.

"That Grimm will get in your head, stay focused on us. We can get through this only if we all work together." Coco's tone was a mixture of serious and comforting. "Don't worry about it right not."

Coco's words had provided me with some comfort, but I could still feel the anxiety inside me. I knew that if I panicked I would bring more Grimm, even though I'm still probably attracting them anyways, and that would make getting out of here far harder. While I walked trying to keep my mind off of the Grimm, for the first time in my life I took the time to pray, and I mean really pray. It was the best thing that I could think of at a time like this and seemed oddly fitting since I was in a life-or-death situation.

After I had finished praying, I had realized I had picked up a pungent iron smell, which most likely was the wounded man's blood. The heightened senses of being a Faunus came back to bite me in the ass... although haven't I always been a Faunus.

' _Why the fuck does that not sound correct, and why the fuck do I have a headache now._ ' I thought.

Before I had anymore time to reflect on my odd feelings about my memories, another pack of Beowolves showed up. By this time, Coco had run out of ammo and converted her weapon back into its purse form and use it to fight off the Grimm. I aimed at two to my right before I heard a click in the revolver I was using. I pulled back the latch to break open the revolver, placed it in my other hand and loaded six red colored bullets into the gun. This time when the bullets contacted with a target after firing the bullet exploded in flames and usually killed them by burning.

' _Well that confirms that those are Dust rounds._ '

As we finished off the last of the Grimm we continued along at a much faster pace. We had finally reached the ruins at the base of the cliff just as Nikita began to come to. The others decided that we could take a light break to catch our breaths and for Nikita to regain her bearings and I started to pull the slime stuff off of my handguns and holsters. Once I had freed my firearms, I placed the revolver back in the man's holster and took the time to reload. With both weapons reloaded, I was ready to get moving again.

"Guys." I heard Anna call out, pointing back towards were we came from.

The 'Giger' Grimm was back and slowly limping its way towards us.

"Alright." Oliver said gaining our attention. "We won't be able to outrun it altogether, so here's the plan: Coco, Jakob, Nikita and Fox will stay here and hold it off while the rest of us get across the bridge. Once we reach that tower, Anna and I will provide covering fire and you four will run back, we'll continue this until we get to the cliff."

"What about Velvet and I?" Yatsu asked as he helped the wounded man back to his feet.

"You two will keep going with him." Oliver established.

"Velvet should help you two, she can fight at range." Yatsu calmly explained.

Velvet timidly nodded in agreement.

"Okay, let's get going soon."

Coco, Nikita, Fox and I readied our weapons as we began to formulate a plan while the others darted down the bridge.

"These Grimm are called 'Sirens'. They are a highly psychic Grimm that can use hypnosis, manipulate emotions and states of mind and could even manipulate memories to either lull their targets or cause them to panic to attract more Grimm. They can accomplish this through eye contact from any range as long as they can make out their targets eyes. That's what happened to Jakob and I as our partners were grabbing the relics." Nikita quickly explained. "Despite the wing-like appendages, they can not fly."

"Any weaknesses?" Coco stated.

"Glasses can limit the effect, they also move slow and they have retractable claws that can cut through several inch thick steel."

"So don't get close." Fox stated, more or less advice than a question.

"And do not look at it."

"Then how the fuck do you want us to fight it?!" I yelled at Nikita.

"Flank it, it can't look at all of us. We spread out, someone grabs its attention and the other three hit it, rinse, repeat." Coco stated. "Since I'm the only one who has a pair of shades, I'll distract it, Jakob if you have any ice Dust use it to freeze the thing in place and you two hit it from the sides."

"Got it." I said, quickly exchanging the rounds in the right revolver with the blue colored ones praying they were ice.

Fox, Nikita and I quickly ran the the columns that were on the sides of the path way and waited for the Grimm to pass. I kept my eyes facing the opposite direction to ensure it couldn't get a good look at them and fuck with my head. I could hear the ground being disturbed as it limped pass, seeming to ignore me.

"Yeah, come on. I'm right here!" Coco yelled to ensure it kept its focus on her.

After a second or two I looked back to see the Siren had walked past me and was still moving towards Coco, who had her head tilted down and her shades pushed up. I walked into the middle of the path and aimed my right revolver at the creatures right foot and shot. Thankfully, when the round impacted the leg became encased in ice up to where it's knee would be. The Siren noticed and started to turn around while I cocked the hammer again and fired at the other foot, freezing it in place too. The creature then began to bend backwards in an attempt to get a look at me and I narrowly closed my eyes and looked away.

"Now!" Fox called out and I heard two pairs of feet running at the Grimm.

Opening my eyes again, I saw Fox give the Siren a right hook, while Nikita jumped up and punched the Grimm in the back, discharging a blast of electricity. The two ran off, not wanting to risk it getting in their heads. Coco took the time to close the gap and slammed her purse into the Grimm's gut and ran off, going to where Fox retreated. I took the time to raise the other revolver and fire two shots at it, the normal round striking its back and the other on missing the target. Knowing it would now attempt to look back at me I ran over to where Nikita was hiding.

"Well it's stuck for the moment." I said putting my back against the column.

"For now, yes. However, we can not keep it immobilized forever." Nikita stated.

Just as I was about to think of something, I heard the crack of two bullets and the Grimm howl in pain. Looking back, I saw the Siren on fire and the ice was starting to melt.

"God dammit." I muttered.

I popped out from behind the Grimm and shot the remaining four ice Dust rounds at the Siren in the hopes keep it frozen. Sadly, only two struck the Grimm and hit its torso and arm which proceeded to melt. The four of us realized this was bad and began to make a break for the bridge under the covering fire of the others. As we sprinted down the bridge, I saw Velvet and Anna at the top of the tower with rifles, Anna using hers and Velvet using a hard light copy of Anna's. Oliver was at the base of the tower and the three others were making haste through the rest of the ruins. When we caught up, Velvet and Anna came down and met up with us.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see that you had it frozen." Anna quickly apologized.

"Its fine, we need a new plan as now we have a dangerous Grimm chasing us while on fire." I commented.

"What now? We can't use the same plan again." Coco asked.

"All of us with guns could shoot at it until its no longer standing." Oliver half joked.

"W-we could... blo... idge." Velvet stuttered lowly, almost causing me to miss it.

"What did you say Velvet?" I asked.

"W-w-we c-could blow up-p the b-bridge?" The poor girl probably though that I didn't think her plan was any good.

"That could work! Velvet, I could almost kiss you." Coco stated causing the rabbit Faunus to become a flustered mess. "Jakob, Anna, give me all of your spare ammo."

Anna and I quickly complied and she placed them into a small pile in the middle of the bridge as she put the few spare rounds from her belt into the pile as well. Oliver also forked over his magazines and the six of us ran to a safe distance and Anna lined up the shot. In a split second the bridge went up in a cloud of fire, ice, lightning and smoke as the Dust detonated and a good three feet of the bridge was gone.

"Hurry let's get going." Oliver ordered and we ran to catch up to the others.

We finally made it back to Fox and Yatsuhashi, however they had a solemn look about them. Fox simply nudged his head to our left and there was the wounded man sat against the wall, with his eyes looking up and not blinking. I took a deep breath knowing that this man was dead and we weren't fast enough; I wasn't fast enough. I let myself become panicked and rendered unconscious by the Siren and it cost this man his life. I wasn't fast enough to carry him to get him back before he bled out. Before I could continue, I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw it was Fox who was comforting me.

"We did everything we could." He stated. "It's not your fault."

' _Yes it is, I shouldn't have been here in the first place._ ' I thought coldly.

"We tried our hardest, and that's what matters." Yatsu added.

' _Maybe._ '

Then, Fox handed me the man's weapons. "He said that you might find these useful."

I hesitated for a moment, wanting to refuse as these should go back to his family or at least be laid to rest with them. However, if he really insisted that I take them would I be disrespecting his last wish. I tentatively took them and placed them between my belt and me.

"What should we do with him?" Anna asked.

"We should take him with us. He deserves to go back to his family." I said, feeling myself tear up. "It's what I would want."

' _But won't be able to._ '

* * *

The Bullhead ride back to Beacon was quiet and rightfully so, as the body of a fellow student lied on a gurney on the floor of the airship. My eyes were glued to his closed eyes and I still couldn't help but feel guilty and that his death was my fault even though he had been wounded long before we got to him. This wasn't the first time I had saw a dead person, as a few months back I lost my grandmother and seeing her laying there, but not actually there was the most surreal and haunting experience of my life and here I was in a similar experience. Again, I was brought face-to-face with my own mortality and knew one day, I would be dead and there was nothing I could do about it.

We landed shortly after my existential thoughts came and went and we disembarked, heading for the main auditorium while the man's body was taken elsewhere. Once there, we waited as Ozpin took the stage and began to form the teams. My mind was still in disarray and thinking back to that man and how we could have saved him.

"Coco Adel, Fox Alistar, Velvet Scarlatina, Yatsuhashi Daichi. The four of you recovered the red ace cards. From this day forth you will work together as Team CFVY, led by Coco Adel." Ozpin spoke, snapping me out of my spiraling thoughts.

The newly formed Team CFVY then walked of the stage, with three of them congratulating Coco on being leader, although in a quieter tone than they would have.

"Oliver Von Grun, Annabelle Rouge, Nikita Stark, Jakob Liath." Ozpin said and the four of us took the stage. "You have retrieved the red king cards so from this day forward you will be Team ORNJ, led by Oliver Von Grun."

The two girls congratulated him while I was only able to place my hand on his shoulder as I felt drained. The four of us walked off the stage and returned to the crowd.

* * *

After the all the teams were formed we were dismissed to the locker room to place our gear away before being assigned rooms. I had placed the two new revolvers in the locker and then the gunbelt with both of my guns still in their holsters. I looked around the locker room and saw it was empty. I let out a shaky sigh as I fell onto the bench behind me and put my head in my hands. I felt that I had failed this man and was to blame, yet I knew that I had tried my hardest to keep him alive and it was beyond my control.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that." A voice called out.

Looking up, I was met by Wednesday who did have a look of sorrow across his face.

"Trying so hard to save someone, only to fail is one of the toughest feelings you could go through. However, as cold as it sounds its part of the job. You can't save everyone."

"I don't need this right now."

"I know. If it's any consolation, he died at peace and grateful for your efforts." Wednesday said before walking away.

Oddly, I found some solace in that he died peacefully despite his wounds and took a breath to calm myself. I had my moment alone to wonder about what could I have do or not done and pushed myself to move on as it is what I need to do. I promised to help Ozpin defeat Salem's cronies and they won't wait for me to take the time to move on I would normally. They would also cause more deaths like this if I didn't take the actions to stop... something big.

' _Why the hell do feel like I know about something important that will happen?_ ' I thought as I got up on my feet and closed the locker.

" _They are a highly psychic Grimm that can use hypnosis, manipulate emotions and states of mind and could even manipulate memories to either lull their targets or cause them to panic to attract more Grimm." Nikita stated._

"Wait! Did my memory get fucked up?"

* * *

Far away from the eyes of Beacon or even the kingdoms lied a castle in the middle of a long forgotten home of one of the two gods of Remnant. This castle was surrounded with pools of black liquid that gave birth to the Grimm, creatures dedicated to the destruction of mankind. In the castle's main hall sat a lone figure at the head of the table along side a Seer. The woman was no older than thirty, but was no longer human. Her fair skin had been replaced eons ago with a deathly pale color with her veins becoming visible, blue eyes now fiery red surrounded in black pools, long blonde hair turned ash white and done up in a bun and wore a long black dress with red embroidering. She was Salem, Mistress of the Grimm and self-proclaimed Goddess of Remnant who was set on defeating Ozpin, the current incarnation of her former lover from untold centuries ago.

Currently, Salem was using the Seer to observe the strangest Huntsman-in-training Ozpin had to date. When the Seer entered his mind and looked through his memories, and found out that this man was from another world and was asked her by someone who wanted to help Ozpin. She also saw that this man had memories of events that were about to happen such as her newest addition Cinder gaining half of the Fall Maiden's power, leading an attack on Beacon and killing Ozpin giving her an advantage in the future. She wanted to see more of these visions of the future, but the Siren had already inadvertently erased some of them. Salem sighed before ordering the Siren to erase the rest of the knowledge of the future just in case the man was able to escape from the Siren. She dismissed the Seer and smirked as she stood up and walked towards the doors.

"Oh, Ozpin, you fool. You brought this man to help you, but he's helped me more than he would have ever helped you."


	4. Chapter 4: The Memory Issue

Chapter 4: The Memory Issue

* * *

 _I was again in a forest filled with pine trees and covered in overgrowth, walking aimlessly. The forest was quiet and held no sounds, no animals and no one except for me, who walked unchallenged. I then came to a clearing where I saw a coyote stood over an deer which was on the ground and covered in blood, lifeless. The coyote looked up at me and I saw no blood on its snout nor anywhere else on its fur; it didn't kill the elk. Just as I began to walk towards the animal, it looked at me before it ran off into the forest disappearing in to the overgrowth. Just as it became obscured by the bushes, I heard a thunderclap and the neigh of a horse again._

* * *

Slowly waking up, the light of the early morning sun filled my vision again and my body felt depleted and exhausted. Slowly rising to a sitting position, I rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes before stretching and rolling my neck. Looking around, I saw that I was in one of Beacon's dorm rooms and in the bed to the left of the window, with Oliver on my left and Anna on the right of the window and Nikita to her right. The room was nicely sized for four people and we all seemed to have desks along the wall next to the front door, and on the right side of the wall was another door, most likely a bathroom.

Today, was a day off as we still needed to be fitted for uniforms, assigned classes and gathers supplies; also it was a Saturday. I pushed myself off my bed and walked over to the suitcase that I remember being dumped with at the hotel when I arrived and rummaged through it. I found a pair of jeans, a crimson t-shit and a gray flannel shirt, grabbed those and the shampoo bottles in the suitcase and took a quick shower. Once I finished showering and got dressed, I made my way over to the cafeteria to get some breakfast in before going on with the day.

As I walked into the cafeteria, I was pushed aside by a pair of student who muttered insults before walking away. I wanted to call them back and give them a piece of my mind, but it wouldn't be worth it in the end. It would only make me the center of their attention and bring more problems to myself. I dealt with bullies in middle school by simply ignoring them as they always want a reaction and staving them that reaction will cause them to get board. Not that I would have really fought back then since I weighed 90 pounds wet, bone thin, and far more anxious.

Quickly shaking my head to remove those thoughts from my mind, I decided to get my breakfast after hearing my stomach growl. Then I got in the line of people that led towards the huge buffet amount of food sitting there, nearly causing me to drool. I took six pancakes, three pieces of bacon and a slice of toast and found an spot to chow down on my food. It honestly didn't take long for the food on my plate to be devoured in record time from only eating breakfast yesterday and then initiation took a lot of my energy. I had been this hungry after hiking trips when the only things I would eat for two days straight were MREs and Mountain Houses which were dehydrated food that tasted mediocre at best. One time, I ate about twenty of the one dollar cheeseburgers from McDonald's one time after a long and grueling trip. Thankfully, I have always had a fast metabolism and never gained too much weight from eating too much.

"H-hey!" I heard the nervous voice of Velvet call out from behind me.

Turning around, I half expected to see her being bullied by other students, but thankfully she wasn't. She stood with a tray of food in her hands and dressed down in casual clothing as well, with a simple brown short sleeve shirt, a pair of loose fitting and torn jeans with a pair of worn white running shoes.

"Hey." I replied back, waving to the seat next to me knowing what she was about to ask next.

"Thank you." She said, taking a seat. "Jakob, right?"

"That's the rumor." I paused seeing her confusion. "Yes, I am."

"Oh, well, how are you feeling?"

"In regards to what?" I genuinely asked, knowing that I had been through a decent amount of shit yesterday.

"The siren. You seemed lost after we found you."

"Yeah, I felt lost. I remember Coco, Fox, Anna, and I were heading to the temple and then I was in that dream, then being attached to a tree with slime. I think it did something to my memory, I'm having issues remembering somethings." I explained.

Her expression turned into concern. "Is it anything important?"

' _I feel like it was._ ' I thought to myself.

"No, nothing life shattering like, who am I or where am I from."

"I'm glad to h-hear that." The rabbit Faunus said before starting to get up.

"Where are you off to?" I asked in a polite manner.

"Oh, I-I don't want cause you any trouble."

I shook my head. "What trouble, we were having a nice conversation."

"No, not l-like that. I mean-"

"Looks like the sobaka found a krolik to play with." A familiar thick Russian accented voice called out from my right.

Velvet shrunk as the man spoke, causing me to get angry as she didn't do anything wrong. Letting out a long sigh to calm down, I turned around to face the big guy from the day we arrived at Beacon. He was still dressed in his combat clothing and had his arms crossed, waiting for a response. I really wanted to hit this guy now, but I knew that I would get my ass whooped by Boris the moron. So again I decided to ignore him and return to my breakfast. However, as I cut a slice of my pancakes 'Boris' had spit on my plate of food. Letting my anger get the better of me I stood up with my fists clenched, about to start swinging when Velvet grabbed my left arm.

"Please don't, it will only make things worse." She pleaded.

"Listen to your krolik. She may be the smartest of your kind; she knows her place." The man taunted, fueling my anger.

Again, I moved to strike the man but Velvet pulled on my arm, this time harder than before.

"P-please, don't-t." Velvet pleaded, pulling back on my arm.

I looked between Velvet and the man, deciding on what to do in this situation; torn between what I really wanted to do and what would be the moral thing to do: taking a moment to think logically and reasonably before making my decision. I felt a strong urge to punch the taste out of this man, but knowing that would create bigger issues and that Velvet would probably disappointed with me for starting a fight. Biting my tongue and letting out a breath to calm myself, before slowly sitting down and ignoring the man again.

"Good sobaka, heel."

My fists again clenched as I thought about hitting this bastard across the face while Velvet's grasp on my arm tightened. After that last comment he walked away, fading into the crowd of people and let out a frustrated sigh. After realizing that my food was ruined, I got up with my tray of food, threw it away and walked out of the cafeteria towards the locker rooms. Remembering from the campus orientation that there was a range for students to practice their accuracy, I thought it would serve as an excellent way to vent.

* * *

While Beacon was a large school, it didn't take long for me to arrive at the locker room and to get my stuff then walk to the range which was a part of the same building. I arrived at my locker, punched in my code and opened it up to be greeted by my pair of Colt 1851s and the pair of Smith and Wessen No.3 Schofields. My eyes were instantly glued to the nickle platted weapons and the events of yesterday while my mind started to think about what could I have done differently. I shook loose those thoughts before grabbing the pistol belt and the pair of Colt 1851s and closed the locker. As I went to put one of the revolvers in the holster, I missed the holster completely and the weapon clattered on the ground. Oddly enough, I half expected for it to shift into something else like a melee weapon of some kind. Quickly, I picked up the weapon and placed it in the holster before heading off to the range.

The range was no different than typical indoor shooting ranges with booths with dividers. The booths were far larger than normal shooting booths back on Earth, easily four times as wide which allowed for students to practice with larger weapons. After talking with a woman behind a desk I allotted a range for myself and walked to it. On the right dividing wall was an electronic screen that had a display to change the number, distance, size, shape and movement of the targets. Quickly, I punched in a range of ten feet with a Beowolf as a target and static movement and a blue hard light version of a Beowolf on its hind legs popped up. Drawing the revolver on my right hip, leveled it at the target, made sure it was aimed at center mass and pulled the trigger. The target turned yellow in color after the bullet struck it clean in the chest, which probably meant it was a wounding shot, then it turned blue again. Aiming the weapon again this time aiming for the head, fired and the target turned red for a few seconds before returning to blue.

One thing I noticed was that Dust rounds were significantly quieter than normal bullets on Earth which means I don't have to worry about going deaf anytime soon. The rounds also felt a hell of a lot lighter than our counterparts, however one downside I have with Dust rounds are there colors are too noticeable from a distance. Either way, I continued to shoot at the target but this time increasing the distance to fifteen feet. This made head shots more difficult as the target was smaller, but two rounds center mass would still be lethal, according to the targets.

Once I had emptied one revolver, I reloaded the weapon and set it back into it's holster to try something that I wanted to do. I let my hand hover over the grip of the revolver, just like in old western movies and quickly drew the weapon with my finger holding down the trigger. As I brought the weapon up with my left hand went to the hammer and pulled it back, causing the gun to fire but sadly missed the target completely. Letting out a sign of disappointment in myself, I holstered the revolver.

"See I told you, he is like Flint Eastwood." The familiar voice of my new partner stated.

"Yeah, if he was blind." The all to familiar voice of the fashionista replied.

"Would you like to try?" I asked as I turned to face the pair.

Coco was dressed more casually with a mocha brown leather jacket, a white shirt that exposed her midriff with a pair of black skinny jeans with the boots from her combat outfit as well as her beret and sunglasses. Anna was still dressed in combat clothes and had her weapon with her, most likely also using the range.

"Oh, no. Way too archaic for me." Coco dismissed, waving her hand.

I turned to face Coco with a pointed eyebrow. "Archaic?"

"Old-fashioned. Do I have to use smaller words." Coco playfully mocked.

I rolled my eyes in response.

"Jokes aside, how are you holding up?"

"I'm alright all things considered. Still a little out of it from yesterday, but I'll be fine."

"That's good, but that wasn't what I was talking about right now."

I raised an eyebrow, honestly confused. "Then what are you talking about."

"That big son of a bitch that harassed you and Velvet this morning. She told me what happened."

I hummed in response. "I'm pissed, but I can't do much about it."

"And why not?" Coco asked.

"Believe me, I would have knocked a few of his teeth out but that wouldn't help me. Also Velvet would probably hate me for it."

"You could have told him to knock it off." Anna countered, slightly angered.

"Yeah, and his response would have been along the lines of 'make me' as he pushes me back." I fired back. "I've dealt with idiots like this before."

Anna sighed. "I don't think you should let him walk over you."

"Believe me, I fucking hate it more than you guys, but it might be the better way for the moment."

"I hope you're right." Coco sighed as the two walked away.

I let out a sigh, turned back to the range and began to reload my weapon. Just as I finished reloading, heard the approach of footsteps.

"I see you have made some good friends." The _ever so welcoming_ voice of Wednesday called out.

"What brings you here, _professor_?"

"A few things that we need to talk about, but first knock off that passive-aggressive shit. I get you went through a lot, but you knew what you were getting into."

"Who in the fuck thought some kid from Earth would be ready for this kind of shit!" I yelled as I spun around to face him.

"Keep your fucking voice down! Do you want the whole planet to know and apparently you thought that you could handle this. Before you even ask it, no I won't take you back a deal is a deal."

"Either way, I got my memories raped by some goddamn mind fucking Grimm and now I missing memories that I can feel in my gut were important! So, I wasn't even focusing on that yet! Not to mention you brought me here and turned me into a Faunus." I whisper yelled the last part.

"Sirens are cruel and deadly creatures, I didn't think Ozpin would let one be close to the forest during initiation but I guess he made a mistake." Wednesday stated before sighing. "I'm sorry that happened to you, but there isn't much I can do to help; memories are a tricky subject and can't be easily reclaimed from Sirens. As for you being a Faunus, do you know how hard it is to cross dimensions and find the right one twice and how much concentration it requires. You're lucky that you didn't accidentally get turned into a woman."

I slowly nodded my head in agreement.

"Regardless, none of that is why I am here. I'm here to talk about... well, now that I think about it, I have an important question to ask first: What _do_ you remember?"

"Everything except for... something important or at least I feel it was important."

"Do you remember what's going to happen?" Wednesday's tone was serious and hushed.

I raised an eyebrow and shot him a confused look. "The fuck are you talking about?"

"You don't! Well, that just great!"

"What the fuck did you expect after I said a Grimm fucked with my memories!"

Wednesday let out a sigh.

"Why is this such a big deal? You apparently knew so much about me that you should know too!" I yelled.

"I only saw key points in your life that demonstrated your character. I didn't watch you for your entire life story, I had a few hundred others to observe too."

"Well, then go get one of those few hundred and bring them here and take me back."

Wednesday sighed again. "If only it were that simple. Creating stable pathways between dimensions take a lot of magic, energy and time, which is in limited supply at the moment, but also creating them too often can tear a whole through space and time and destroy both dimensions. It takes nearly twenty years for me to build up the magic and energy necessary to create a one way pathway and close to thirty to make a two-way."

"So when we made our deal, you didn't bother to tell me that it could be twenty years before I could be able to go home."

"Yes, I withheld that because I knew you wouldn't accept if I told you. And yes, I played you because Ozpin and I are out of time and we needed something. I only knew that you _had_ known what was going to happen when I was bringing you here as I saw some of it but nothing important, just a few future students. Given the fact one of them was Weiss Schnee and she's sixteen currently means that it is going to come to a head sometime next year which means we really needed what was in your brain to help us."

"I'm sorry to disappoint." I shot back bitterly.

"So that brings us to my second question, what are _you_ going to do? The way I see it our deal is now void and you have twenty years to kill."

I sighed and shook my head. "The deal may be void, but I can hardly back away now. You still need all the help you can get and would be damned if I turned my back on you and Ozpin, even if the both of you are colossal pricks."

"Believe me the Headmaster wants nothing to do with this idea. He feels that these matters should be better handled by the _locals_ and that you and I shouldn't be involved." Wednesday snidely remarked, chuckling at the end.

"We're not friends." I replied, knowing full well he was trying to change the subject.

"The feeling is mutual." Wednesday replied before walking away.

I sighed loudly. "Fucking prick."

* * *

After spending another thirty minutes or so at the range, I decided I had calmed down enough and spent enough ammo to leave. I made my way back to the locker room and placed my weapons and the belt back into my locker before closing it. I then made my way to where the fittings for the school uniforms were, which was in the ballroom; a short walk away. As I entered the room, I noticed there wasn't too many people which was odd given fittings were usually time consuming affairs and I believe that the Beacon Academy class of 2183 is about four hundred or so students.

There was about a couple dozen students around waiting for the fitter, which I assumed was the man in a sharp mocha suit with a measuring tape around his neck and sowing pins in the sleeves. The man had neatly combed black hair and a pair of soft brown eyes behind a pair of thin rim glasses, stood close to six foot tall and was standing next to a pad that had several pylons around it. Students would walk on to the platform and the pylons and the platform would glow blue and the tailor would look at his scroll before signaling to the student that they could move off the platform. I got in line with a few of the other students and waited for my turn.

Thankfully the whole process took less than ten minutes, mainly spent waiting in line and found my way back to my locker to deposit the business card the tailor gave us to know where to pick up the uniforms. As I closed my locker, I was greeted by Wednesday yet again.

"What do you want now?"

"What did I tell you about that passive-aggressive shit? Anyway, I remembered one other thing that I should tell you about. Those new weapons you inherited have the ability to transform into a melee component, just flick them to the side and it'll work on transform on its own." Wednesday informed before leaving again.

"Still a prick." I mumbled as I reopened my locker and took out one of the Schofields.

I looked over the weapon and saw nothing out of the ordinary about it as it had no evidence of moving parts beyond the latch and the pins on the frame. As I did as Wednesday instructed, the frame flipped around and moved the the bottom of the grip so the barrel was against the side or my forearm and pointing behind me. The trigger stayed in place, while the trigger guard extended over my hand and the weapon was now in its melee form. Flicking my wrist again and the weapon reset to its default mode and I placed the weapon back in the locker.

"That's fucking cool." I spoke as I closed the locker.

* * *

"If this is a joke Wednesday, your humor has finally grown stale."

Wednesday sighed. "I wish it was one of my terrible jokes, but I'm serious Oz."

"Wednesday." Ozpin stated while pinching the bridge of his nose. "You put too much faith on this plan and now you have nothing to show for it. Twenty years of hard work washed down away along with parts of Mister Liath's memory."

"Oh come on, you couldn't have expected for a Siren to be in the forest yesterday. _You_ should have found out about it long before initiation started so this is all your fault."

Ozpin slowly rose from his seat with a serious glare. "Do not spin this as my fault. I have made plenty of mistakes over the years, yet this is not one of them. I had nothing to do with any of this, Wednesday, this was your plan and your failure and yours alone."

"You allowed me to carry it out." Wednesday stopped seeing Ozpin's glare intensify. "Okay, I fucked up, but we still have someone to help us."

Ozpin sat down and sighed. "With out this 'important information', I am afraid Mister Liath is no more beneficial than any hired gun. We don't have the upper hand you promised and something tells me that you are incapable of restoring his memories."

Wednesday solemnly nodded in agreement. "I will allow Mister Liath to remain at this academy as long as he can maintain a good standing or I will be forced to expel him."

"Oz."

"His combat scores were sub par and only passed due to his actions and teamwork. The boy is little more than a liability now."

"Since when did you become so cold, old friend? He shows some promise and just needs a little help to catch up."

"I don't run this academy as a charity, Wednesday, and will not allow a person with little experience and skill in this academy as they could get others killed." Ozpin explained.

"Spare me that bullshit, Ozpin. You let a person in a similar situation be a student at this academy and you didn't tack on the 'maintain a good standing' bullshit. Come to think of it the only major thing that made the two different was their gender. Maybe that's why you aren't giving Mister Liath the same leniency as you did with Miss R-"

"That has nothing to do with this situation."

"Oh, right. She actually had something more potent for you to use in your little chess game. This man gave everything in his life up for this and you intend to throw him to the curb if he doesn't meet your standards, you and I know what could happen from there. Salem has a habit of taking in those cast out by those in power."

"You don't believe he'll turn?"

"If you expel him, it would only be a matter of time. Also, his memories might not be permanently lost as he seems that he has premonitions and knows the importance of it. As we get closer to it, the familiarity of events could trigger a recall."

"Keyword being 'could'. You are still placing too much faith in something that might not happen."

"So are you. Oz, we have to run that risk; we are our of time."

Ozpin let out a heavy sigh. "Mister Liath is your responsibility, any failures by him will be your fault and if any student dies because of him, you and Mister Liath will have a change in careers."


	5. Chapter 5: Not So Calm Few Days

Chapter 5: A Not so Calm Few Days

* * *

After placing the Schofields back in the locker, I made my way back towards the cafeteria since it was close to midday and my stomach was growling. Subconsciously, my hand went to my pockets for my scroll to check it as I walked but started to pad my pockets rabidly trying to find it. My shoulders slumped realizing that I had left it back in the dorm room but thankfully it was along the way. I finally reached the dormitory and went to open the door and the damn thing didn't open. I nearly slammed my head through it after remembering that the doors work like hotel room doors in that a scroll is needed to open the door. It was some silly security measure that they only applied to the dormitory and none of the other buildings.

"Fucking hell." I muttered realizing I was locked out. "Of all the stupid..."

Finding a bench close to the door, I sat down sighing trying to ease my growing stress. It wasn't even ten o'clock most likely and I almost gotten into a fight with two assholes and now I locked my dumbass out of the dormitory. I am already hating my decision to come to this godforsaken planet and want to hit past me hard enough I would still feel it now.

"What's done is done." I stated to myself as I tilted my head back and closed my eyes.

Taking a moment to listen to the bird calls and the rustle of the leaves, I found a little respite from my less than stellar day so far. For a brief moment, I expected to open my eyes and find myself in my backyard with cup of coffee in my hand. However, as I opened my eyes, I could only be disappointed by the fact I was still stuck here. Either way, complaining about it won't change that I'm here and I don't have a way off this planet for another twenty years, _if_ Wednesday is telling the truth.

I couldn't really blame his underhanded tactics, because I know what is at stake and would have done the same thing in his position. As much as I try to be a good man, I know sometimes you have to stoop lower to ensure you win and the evil men don't. While most of the time it can come of as brutal and cold, it can be effective and may save more lives in the long run.

In any case, thinking about the philosophical monologue about morality and the greater good wont cause the door to open to let my stupid ass in. I don't know what is worse and more humiliating: me falling face first before initiation in front of Coco or being locked out of the entire dormitory building on day one? I mean, at least I didn't get motion sick, throw up and try some stupid pickup lines on girls all in the same span of time.

' _Huh, oddly specific._ ' I thought.

As I focused beyond my thoughts, I noticed the dorm building doors open as Nikita and Oliver exited. I bolted to my feet and grabbed the door before it could close and to hold it open for them.

"Good morning, Jakob." Oliver greeted.

"Morning." I replied. "Oh, and don't forget your scrolls or you'll get locked out."

The two looked at me strangely. "Yes, we know. That was covered in the orientation when we first arrived." Nikita stated.

' _That explains it._ '

"Oh, must have just slipped my mind." I sheepishly responded.

I then entered the building and began to head up the stairs to the fourth floor where our dorm room was. After making it up the flight of stairs, I found myself at the door to the room and I punched in the code to unlock the door. I walked over to my bed grabbed my scroll and turned to leave when I came face-to-face with Nikita.

"Jesus Christ!" I yelled as I fell on my back.

"I am sorry, I did not mean to surprise you. I just wanted to properly thank you for breaking my fall yesterday." Nikita stated as she helped me up.

"You mean when you nearly broke my spine." I replied in my usual joking attitude.

Nikita cringed a bit. "I also wanted to apologize for harming you and not properly informing you about what I was going to do."

"It's alright I meant it as a joke, you didn't hurt me too bad and yesterday was so chaotic I don't think all of us were thinking straight."

"That is no excuse! I am certain that if I fell from a foot higher I could have-"

"Key word being 'could have'. I'm fine and that should be all that matters."

Nikita raised a brow at me. "You are a very peculiar man. Most people would be upset with me over how I acted yesterday."

"Yeah but like I said, yesterday was chaotic and everyone acted differently then."

"You know, you are one of the few people who I think I can call friend." Nikita stated. "Oh, I mean that you might be one of the first friends I have made here at Beacon along with Oliver and Annabelle. Most of my friends are back in Atlas."

"I'm glad we _might_ have become friends after you almost crushed my spine." I joked before walking away.

Nikita sighed as she followed suit. "You know what I had intended."

* * *

By the time noon came around, the team had reunited and was heading to the cafeteria for lunch after we had finished getting fitted and getting our schedule for classes. The only few items that remained was to get the textbooks for those classes and other school supplies. Currently, our team and Team CFVY with Fox, Coco, Oliver and Nikita on one side and Yatsuhasi, Velvet, me and Anna on the other was in the middle of a discussion.

"I still think it was a bad idea to blow up the bridge." Nikita stated.

"Well, considering that the Siren was still chasing us it was the only way to evade it." Oliver explained.

Anna leaned in. "While that may be true, Jakob and I had to use all of our ammo to blow up part of the bridge. If we ran into any more Grimm we would have been in trouble."

"You guys were the only ones with ammo left. I was nearly out and Ollie had a few mags left so I didn't know who else to ask." Coco countered.

I as well as Velvet and Yatsuhashi decided to stay out of this conversation but for a different reason than the latter two. I was too enthralled in my own musings about the fact that I may never see my home, my family or my friends ever again. It was the most gut wrenching and sobering thought I had in the past few days and not even the reason as why I am here can change that fact. Sure, Wednesday said I _could_ be able to go home in twenty years but let's be real for a moment, this is a planet infested with soulless monsters that prey on all life and is in the middle of a secret war between Ozpin and Salem that is about to go down next year. There is a very high chance that I'll die so I would be _very_ lucky to see twenty... for the second time. It was a a real gut punch that in all honesty scared shitless by it, however I had crossed the Rubicon and much like Caesar there was no going back but no amount of rationalizing would make me forget.

"Hey, cowboy?" Coco asked, grabbing my attention. "You alright?"

"Huh." I muttered as I changed my focus from empty space to the mocha themed girl. Slowly realizing that I must have been starring off and not focused, I blinked my eyes to snap myself back to reality.

"Yeah, I'm just... tired from yesterday still." I said, pausing to think of a good cover story.

"Well, hopefully not too tired to not answer the ten questions you owe me." Coco stated, pulling down her sunglasses to show how serious she was.

' _Oh, right. Shit._ ' I thought as I remembered our bet from two days ago.

"A deal is a deal." I stated hoping this would take my mind off of things and that my answer would satisfy her for the moment.

Coco's lips slowly formed into a devilish smirk. "Good, because I think now is a great time for those questions. After all, the previous conversation was getting stale"

"As long as they aren't too personal." I replied, hoping to save myself some embarrassment.

Coco shrugged her shoulders. "No promises."

' _Fuck._ ' Coco's smirk seemed to grow seeing my shoulder's slouch in displeasure. "Don't worry cowboy, I'll only ask five in the interest of time. I'll save the other five for another time." The fashionista assured.

"Alright." I agree.

"Good, so first question: Where are you from?"

"A small village in Vacuo called Mesa." I stated, which was not really a lie since I was born in Mesa but I never really lived there.

"Did you go to Dusk Combat School too?" Velvet chimed in.

"No, I actually never went to a combat school since Mesa was a remote and disconnected village. I was lucky to find my way to Beacon from there."

"How are you liking Vale so far?" Oliver asked.

I chuckled briefly. "It's nice to be out of the hundred degree plus weather."

"Yeah, the weather here is nice. Back to the questions because I know you are trying to change the subject." Coco stated plainly.

"No, what would make you think that." I replied in a sarcastic, joking manner.

I could feel Coco roll her eyes behind her sunglasses. "You're a smartass." I simply shrugged my shoulders. "Second question: whats up with the old fashioned weapons?"

"Simplicity. The revolver is simple to operate, clean, reload and carry. My personal philosophy is simplicity is survival. Sure, I am sacrificing ammo capacity for the simplicity but that would make it easier to master, if that makes sense." I explained.

"You have some good points, but a handgun much like the one I incorporated into my saber could be more effective." Oliver countered.

"True, but a pistol still has a lot of moving parts that can break down. Also, I like the style and cool-guy factor of the old revolvers."

"It doesn't seem to be doing much for you." Coco jabbed.

I placed my hand over my heart in a dramatic fashion. "Oh no, my self-esteem is shattered. What ever am I going to do?" I finished by rolling my eyes.

"Oh, god. Now there is two of them." Oliver stated dejectedly, before turning to me. "I was hoping you wouldn't be like her."

"Come on, I'm not _that_ bad." Coco defended.

"I don't know if that was an insult directed at me so I'll just assume it wasn't." I stated before turning my attention to my lunch I had forgotten about.

"Wait, we're getting off track again. Third question: why did you apply to Beacon instead of Shade since you're from Vacuo?"

I took a moment to think of how to answer. "I wanted to see something new, and see the world. Live somewhere else for a while."

"A very good reason." Nikita stated. "We typically live in the same area for our entire lives and never see much of the world."

"I don't think we need a philosophy lesson, Nikita." Anna replied politely.

"I feel it is still a necessary quote as well as I appreciate the application of philosophy." Nikita countered.

The two females of Team ORNJ then began to debate the use of philosophy in life while the rest of us moved on.

"Now, for question four: what would you have done if you couldn't be a huntsman?" Coco continued with her questions.

"I could have been a police officer or a medic. If I couldn't have been either of those, I enjoy writing so I guess I could have became a writer." I answered.

Coco's smirk grew again. "Can you write some poetry dedicated to yours truly or my adorable bunny teammate?"

The poor rabbit Faunus's cheeks turned a dark scarlet and I felt my face heat up a bit while Oliver looked over to his fashionista friend and shook his head while holding back his laughter. Fox just put his head into his hands and let out a sigh while Nikita and Anna remained in their own conversations.

"Oh, and that was not my fifth question." Coco stated.

I shook my head. "No, you said five questions and that makes five."

Coco leaned forward. "I've made sure to label my questions for a reason."

"You still asked five questions, therefor you asked your five questions." I replied, hoping to put an end to this.

Coco seemed to stop to think for a moment before responding. "That means you have to answer it."

' _Open mouth, insert foot._ ' I thought realizing that I backed myself into a corner. However, that also means I might have an opportunity to tease Coco because she might be expecting me to respond. Although, I don't know if I can come up with a witty response to use, but then a good response came to mind.

I smirked. "Okay, here's a poem for you. Roses are red. Violets are blue. I don't know why I put up with you."

"Eh, 8 for quickness but a 3 for creativity." Coco retorted, completely unfazed.

I shrugged my shoulders and muttered to myself. "I tried."

* * *

 _I had found myself in a forest again. However, I couldn't tell whether or not this was the forest from the other dreams or it was the Emerald Forest as the two were identical. Either way, I began to walk aimlessly. The sounds of the forest were plentiful and made the dream almost peaceful. As I was walking I heard a crackle noise, then a few moments later another crackle. After a minute or passed the crackling became louder and closer. Turning around I saw the forest had become engulfed in flames and in the center of it was that reddish-brown horse, this time with fire emanating off it's hooves and it's mane._

* * *

I jolted awake from the dream, to find myself in the dorm room. It was a while after sunrise and so far the only one up was Oliver who was looking over his schedule. Wiping the tiredness out of my eyes, I sat up and quickly recollected the dream. The horse from the dream felt familiar but I knew that I'd never seen a horse in person before. Regardless, I got out of my bed and sluggishly walked over to the bathroom to get ready for the day since it was Monday; first day of class. Before going into the bathroom, I grabbed the box that contained the school uniform that was delivered yesterday and then entered.

After a sobering cold shower, I got dressed in the uniform which made me remember how much I hated wearing dress shoes. After exiting the bathroom, I decided to not wear them and instead wore my boots and my gloves too. As I finished making my adjustments to the uniform, I went to our little kitchen and brewed myself a cup of coffee and nuked some frozen waffles for breakfast. As I waited, Anna slowly stirred awake and dragged herself to the shower. Our team agreed that the shower was a first come, first serve type of deal to avoid any awkward situations or waiting. I quickly scarfed down my food and made my way over to one of the desks with my cup of coffee.

I decided to read _Starship Troopers_ now since I had a decent chunk of time before classes began. Checking my scroll, I noticed it was already 7:58 and classes would begin in an hour. If I remembered correctly from the tour, it took about fifteen minutes to walk from the dormitory to the classrooms, and I always tried to get to classes early, so I elected to leave by 8:30 or 8:40.

* * *

Thankfully, everyone on my team woke up on time and didn't have to run to class. However, we all had different first hour classes with me in Port's Grimm Studies, Anna in Goodwitch's Combat Training Course, Nikita in Oobleck's World History class and Oliver in Peach's Dust Studies and Applications. I feel like I got the short end of the straw since I had the professor that could put you to sleep as my first class of the day. The final class of the day was now upon us and I was in Goodwitch's class and in the seats in the auditorium waiting. There wasn't anyone I recognized except for that big dumb Russian asshole who I hated. Just as the bell sounded for class to began, Coco sat down in the row in front of me and out of breath. I'm willing to bet she ran to make it to class on time.

"Quiet down class." Goodwitch commanded as she walked towards the center of the ring. "Thank you, I am Professor Goodwitch and I am your combat instructor. Typically, the first day is simple introduction to what this course will be however the deputy-headmaster Professor Wednesday feels that it would be best to have a live demonstration of..."

' _Of course he's not only a teacher but Ozpin's second hand man._ ' I thought bitterly as I had tuned out Goodwitch's speech.

"Would any one like to volunteer for the demonstration match?" Goodwitch asked and not a soul made a noise or moved a muscle. "Very well, I guess I'll have to chose."

The professor tapped a few times on her scroll before looking back up at the class. "Will Miss Adel and Mister Liath please get ready to take the field."

I felt my whole body slump. ' _Just my fucking luck._ ' I pushed myself up and made my way towards the locker rooms. As I entered the locker room I was greeted by the mystic professor.

"Wednesday." I greeted.

" _Professor_ Wednesday." The old man stressed.

"What wisdom have you come to impart on me?"

The old man shrugged. "If you're going to be rude then I'll just let you get killed by your friend."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, I know what you mean."

"Aura is a complicated thing." Wednesday began. "Its a manifestation of the soul yet not connected. They way to bring it out is through focus and will, you have to force it out. I know it sounds like a pathetic motivational speech but it is what it is."

I closed my eyes and shook my head. I then focused on the idea of having a barrier to protect myself with and the need for it. I felt a gradual warmth wash over me but I tried to keep my focus on that idea until the warmth passed. Slowly opening my eyes I saw an almost proud look on Wednesday's face.

"You have a fight to worry about."

"Oh, right." I said as I ran over to my locker as Wednesday left.

Quickly changing into my combat clothing and arming myself with the Schofields, I walked back towards the arena this time going through the tunnel that lead to the field itself. I saw Goodwitch standing there with Coco behind her dressed in her combat attire, weapon slung over her shoulder and a smug grin.

As Goodwitch began to lay down the rules, I was formulating a game plan in my head. I knew from... somewhere that when she has that minigun out she's weak in close range and has to turn her weapon back into the handbag. However, I'm certain even with Aura a hit from a condensed minigun isn't going to be pleasant. I also know that when she kicked a Beowolf, she kicked it off the ground a good foot or two so she definitely packs a punch. I just don't entirely remember how I know this but I know it was her. Either way, the best option is be fast and at a decent range so my weapons will be effective.

"Are both fighters ready?" The professor's voice called out.

"Absolutely." Coco stated confidently.

' _Hell no._ ' I thought as I nodded yes.

"Remember, ring out and Aura levels in the red mean the match is over. Begin."

As Goodwitch finished speaking and the lights dimmed I immediately dove to my right as Coco unleashed a hailstorm of lead... dust... whatever. Quickly scrambling up to my feet, I started to run around the leader of Team CFVY hoping to outrun her aim. As I did I drew my left revolver and popped off a few rounds to get her to flinch just enough to buy me an opening. Quickly changing course and switching my weapons into the gauntlet mode and reeled my right fist back for an opening blow. Coco saw what I had planned and quickly transformed her weapon back into the handbag and easily sidestepped my punch. Capitalizing on the opportunity, she kicked the back of my knee causing my leg to buckle. Just as she did, I responded by a swinging my arm back, catching her in the side of the face and stumbling her back a bit.

I then got back on to my feet and rushed Coco again trying not to give her any respite and make her more manageable with her minigun stashed. I threw a flurry of punches which were either blocked, parried or missed, but I knew it wasn't easy for her as she had a look or irritation. In the midst of my punches, I turned the pistol in my right hand back to its original form and fanned the hammer at Coco. As I finished with my sixth shot, Coco's handbag collided with my chin and knocked me to my right and on to the floor. I shook off the hit but it felt like a train hit and still stung like hell. As I had began to get back up, Coco brought the bag down on to my back which put me back onto the floor. She then followed up with a kick to my ribs which sent me a few feet away.

I took a sharp breath as I jumped onto my feet and felt a wave of pain. ' _That. Fucking. Hurt. Fuck it, no holding back._ '

Switching my last weapon into its original mode and put it into my right hand before aiming at Coco as she turned her weapon into its minigun form. As I leveled the weapon center mass, time slowed down again and my arm was covered in electricity as well. Not taking a moment longer, I quickly fired all six rounds which all struck home. However, that did nothing to help me as Coco had also fired and her bullets were numerous and had to have been a larger round. After several had struck me I had dove to the side and scrambled back up to my feet. Sadly, Coco had expected it and quickly adjusted her bullet hose to track me but I was still faster although I could feel the bullets narrowly missing my back.

Now I was up shit's creek since I had used up all of my ammo and had only one of my weapons with me and a trail of bullets on my ass. I knew I couldn't run forever and I didn't have the ability to fight at range. Then the sound of constant gunfire ceased as she ran out of ammo and switched her weapon back. I darted back towards the fashionista as I reeled my hand back and transformed my pistol into its gauntlet form. I surprised her with a left hook and followed it up with a punch to the gut.

Coco growled before kicking me in the gut then swung her bag in an uppercut which knocked me flat on my ass. She then swiped her bag into my ribs which cause me to roll a bit. As I had gotten on to my hands and knees, the bag slammed into my side once more and I was on my back again. I quickly kicked the back of her knee which caused her falter long enough to get back to my feet and throw a right hook. However, after all of the abuse I took and energy I spent, my attack was telegraphed, sloppy and slow which Coco dodged with ease before slamming the bag into my stomach.

I heard the audience groan as I did from the hit and it nearly knocked the air from me. The lights brightened and a buzzer sounded as I slowly got up from the kneeling position I was in.

"With Mister Liath's aura in the red the match can be called in official tournaments such as the Vytal Festival next year. Mister Liath, you had a great strategy at the start but you should not have engaged in hand to hand with Miss Adel for as long as you did." Goodwitch explained.

Looking back at Coco I saw why she had become so aggressive towards the end, her glasses were not on her face. It was the fist time I had really seen her without said article and I could see just how attractive she was. I quickly snapped myself out of it and extended a hand.

"Good fight." I said a she shook my hand.

"You weren't half bad yourself."

* * *

After collecting my weapon, I made my way back to the locker room and placed my stuff back and changed back into my uniform. Given the beating I just went through, I expected there to be bruises but there were none yet it still hurt like hell. Just I finished putting on the uniform I closed the locker and started to walk back to class.

"Hold up, cowboy." Coco called out.

I stopped walking and let Coco catch up to me. She was dressed in the school uniform again with her beret and sunglasses, perfectly intact.

"I just wanted to say that I might have gone a little overboard in the fight."

I shot her a raised eyebrow.

"I know, but I'm sorry about that. I had thought that you had broken my sunglasses."

"And that warrants a complete smack down?" I shot back.

"Given these are designer sunglasses I paid good money for, yes in the heat of the moment it did."

"Why do you wear designer items in a profession that is about killing monsters and fighting?" I inquired.

Coco stopped for a moment. "It's something I learned from my father. He runs a clothing company here in Vale dedicated for Huntsmen and Huntresses and told me a huntsman should be dressed to the nines even in the field. His love for fashion and my mother's job as a Huntress resulted in who I am now."

I nodded, understanding her reason.

"He was the one that makes the school uniforms for Beacon."

"No shit."

"Yep. Oh, and cowboy?"

"Yeah?"

"I saw the way you looked at me earlier and I can't say I don't like it." Coco stated.

' _I don't know what will be the death of me, the Grimm or her._ ' I thought as she overtook me. She then turned around, pushing down her sunglasses and winked at me. ' _Definitely her._ '


	6. Chapter 6: The Only Easy Day

Chapter 6: The Only Easy Day was Yesterday

* * *

The rest of Monday had past uneventfully and before I knew it, it was now Wednesday. I was currently walking towards my third class of the day which was Professor Peach's Dust Studies and Applications which by far was the weirdest and most useful class. Learning how Dust works and what it can be used for is extremely helpful for someone like me who needs to depend on it much more than the others around me. It also taught me what each color of Dust was; for example red is fire, yellow is electricity, light blue is ice but those are just the basics. A part of today's lesson covered two of the rarest kinds of Dust with the first one talked about being black Dust, known also as anti-Dust; original name right? Its actually a highly illegal form of Dust for those outside of the Huntsmen, law enforcement and military as it has the capacity to negate Aura and is hard to obtain for those reasons. The compound of black Dust has a reverse polarity to Aura hence it acts like magnets when you flip them and the repel each other, especially creating a hole in Aura for a moment. It is also a more dense variant of Dust that is about as dense as lead so it can be seen like our bullets on steroids.

The Dust is reserved for the law, military and Huntsmen for the sole purpose of dealing with people with Aura as an equalizer in fights. If this Dust didn't exist police would be outclassed by criminals that use Aura and military battles would last easily several times longer than they do back home. The only downside to black Dust is that it is extremely ineffective against Grimm even in larger calibers such as .50 caliber which is why it has such a limited use. A person also has to go through lot of training, become certified and be a lawman, soldier or a full fledged Huntsman to be able to own and use it. It is also rarer than most other forms of Dust and is far more expensive than standard flavors of Dust.

Another interesting kind of Dust we covered was purple Dust which is also known as Anti-Gravity Dust. That one is pretty self-explanatory, but it is rare and man-made only. It takes a few different Dust crystals to make it and takes a long time to make it as well. The combination of red, blue, green and orange Dust and letting it sit for several days is how one can make purple Dust, which can not exist as crystals or actual dust but only as bullets. One shot from Anti-Grav Dust causes an object to float and a second shot cancels the first shot's effects. I already thought of a few uses for it for dealing with large Grimm in the future.

After the school day ended I returned to my dorm to work on my homework for Oobleck's. I remembered how much I hated the structure of high school which Beacon followed. However, I also missed the order and discipline that that kind of structure provided and honestly was better for me since I had a tendency to slack off. On a different note there wasn't a lot of homework to do with the exception of Oobleck's class which was still light in comparison to the AP history classes I took back in high school. I decided since I essentially got a second chance as I am seventeen again that I would push myself to do well academically. Although, the toughest class I had was combat class which pushed me to my limit. In just the first few days, Coco had mopped the floor with me and the exercises in the class had been exhausting.

"Why are you doing homework after you just got out of class?" Anna inquired.

Turning around to see she had just gotten out of the shower. "Might as well get it over with now."

She hummed in agreement and I went back to my work. However, as I was working a straw and random thought entered my mind. My mind had snapped back to after the duel with Coco and what she had said in the locker room. I seriously couldn't tell whether she was being serious or was just messing with me. She never really brought anything else like that up in the past few days, so I guess she could have meant it. I didn't know how to think about that because I had only know her for a short while although she was a cool person and reminded me of my friends. I decided I'll give it a week or two to see how I actually feel in regards to romantic interest and get to know her a little bit more.

The split second thought about my friends had fucked me up. It had been a week since I gave up everything to come here and lost the important information in my head to some Grimm. My gut began to feel like my appendix and liver had exploded knowing that everyone I knew was gone and as far as they were concerned I had just vanished without a trace and that killed me more than anything. I could have lived with the fact if I died and then came here so my family could have some closure. Now I was staring at my work attempting to fight back the tears that were starting to form. Taking a long and deep breath and sitting there for a minute or so, I calmed myself down enough to not break down crying. I closed the textbook, grabbed my scroll and headed for the door saying I needed to take a break from my work.

I decided to walk around the campus to try to clear my head from the dark and depressing thoughts that had preoccupied me a moment ago. Thankfully, the partially clouded sky and the breeze and walking around the large castle-like school had been calming. It served as the distraction I desperately needed from the nightmarish thoughts that began to plague me recently. Although, those thoughts threatened to slip back into my mind at anytime.

"Is everything alright, Liath?" A stoic voice called out.

I turned to meet the voice seeing Yatsuhashi sitting on a bench nearby.

"Yeah." I respond briefly.

The mountain of a man sighed. "Your attitude betrays your words."

I rolled my head and let out my own sigh, knowing that Yatsu wasn't really going to let this go as he was the kind of friend. Also, it might actually good to talk about this in some form or it will slowly eat at me from the inside.

"Homesick?"

I raised an eyebrow at his response. "Is it obvious?"

"To most others no, but to me and others familiar with it: yes." His stoic tone never faltering.

"You're not from Vale either?" I asked to which he responds by shaking his head. "Where are you from?"

"I was born in Mistral, but moved to Vacuo for combat school and then here." I nodded to signal I was listening. "It's hard to be far away from your family but you must also remember that your here for them. Our job is to protect those who cannot protect themselves against the Grimm."

"Yeah, I get that but, its just hard to... be so far away and out of touch with them."

"It will be difficult but you will overcome. I can teach you some meditations I learned from when I lived in Mistral to help keep your mind off things."

I smiled at his kind offer. "I'll have to take you up on that some day."

Yatsuhashi, in the short time I've known him has had this big brother kind of personality and it was something I found solace in. Here was a man I hardly have known for a week offering ways to lift this shit off of my mind, taking his own time to help me. It also served as a reminder of what I foolishly gave up in the hopes of being some kind of hero. Either way, it still helped me in the moment to know I had someone to rely on in some way.

"I hope you do."

"Thank you." I said before continuing on my walk.

After a few more minutes walking around the campus, I started to walk back towards my dorm to finish up the homework I had started this morning. However, as I approached the dormitory I noticed the 'Boris' the Russian asshole and he had just noticed me. Of all the shit I don't need right now, this will rank at the top of that list.

"Who let you walk around without a leash, Sobaka."

"Don't you have to be a moron somewhere else." I fired back letting my emotions get the better of me.

The man chuckled. "I should get a muzzle for your barking."

"You really should find some new insults as this shit is gettin' stale."

"Maybe the time for insults is over."

Judging by his tone and body language he was talking about fighting. I may have restrained myself for Velvet's sake, but she isn't here. Not wanting to be the first one to take a hit, I was about to throw a right hook when someone else speaking had startled me.

"Zagar! Enough!"

I turned to face the newcomer to see someone who could be best described as a magician. Walking towards us was a young woman with long crimson hair and pale blue eyes with a red velvet top hat on the top of her head with a black ribbon around it and the item tilted to the side slightly. She wore a white dress shirt with a black bow tie under a crimson tailcoat with black lining and a pair of form fitting black form fitting dress pants and crimson heels. In one of the pockets of the coat was a rose and in the other was a stack of metallic playing cards with the Queen of Spades visible.

The man, Zagar, took a step back while mumbling something in Russian as the girl with the magician motif walked up.

"I'm sorry about Yurik's poor attitude towards you." The woman said. "He doesn't seem to get the idea Faunus are people."

Yurik then angrily cursed something in Russian again but this time it was met with a slap in the face from a metal playing card that floated back into the woman's pocket.

"Consider that an attitude adjustment. Oh, I'm Abigail Vermilion." She introduced herself with a bow while taking off her hat.

"Jakob Liath." I stated, not sure how to properly greet her.

"You know, you remind me of someone I... knew." Abigail stated as she eyed me with scrutiny.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I asked, half jokingly.

"Abigail." A voice chimed in, cutting off Abigail before she could speak.

I turned to see Coco standing behind us, still dressed in her combat clothing.

"Coco." Abigail calmly replied.

For the first time, Yurik and I had something common which was our confusion about what was happening in front of us.

"Still heavily into fashion after all those years I see." Abigail stated, pointed gaze directed at the mocha haired girl's outfit.

Coco crossed her arms. "You know me."

The magician girl hummed in response before motioning towards me. "Is he your brother?"

"No, my brother's a few years younger than me. He's a friend of mine." Coco explained.

I could tell that this conversation was tense, even though both of them were being polite with each other.

"How have you been?" Coco asked, breaking the moment of silence between the two.

Abigail shrugged her shoulders. "Fine."

The fashionista pushed down her sunglasses to show a mildly concerned look. "You're not mad, are you?"

"You mean since we broke up three years ago, no. I understood that you no longer felt that way about me and wanted to move on, I just wish you didn't move on immediately after." Abigail stated, arms cross.

"Looking back, I understand it was a shitty move but I was a stupid love-struck fourteen year old who didn't know any better." Coco explained.

"How are things between you and... what was her name? Ash?"

Coco shrugged, pushing her glasses back up. "She cheated on me a few months later. I haven't heard much about her since nor do I care."

"Sorry to hear about that. Well, I got to take Mister Hateful here back to the dorm room without starting fights with Faunus. Nice meeting you Jakob and uh... good seeing you again Coco."

"Talk to you later." Coco said as the other two began to walk away.

I was left standing in confusion as to what just went down after I waved goodbye to Abigail.

"What's got you confused, cowboy?"

"I... uh... didn't know..." I trailed off trying to formulate a response, feeling like I was being put on the spot.

Coco raised an eyebrow at my confused and tongue-tied form. "Oh! That's what has you confused. To use a common phrase I'm sure you'll understand, I play for both teams."

"Oh." I let out as I nod in acknowledgment. "Okay."

"My statement from Monday still stands by the way." She said, while waving as she walked away.

* * *

By the time night came, a thunderstorm had rolled into Vale and was the only sound that filled the dorm room. I had been unable to sleep as my thoughts kept me awake. A voice in the back of my mind reminded me of my situation. Then as I had laid there in bed, the sense of total isolation and loneliness washed over me. I finally realized that I would never see home, my family, my friends ever again and I was going to die here with no one to truly morn me and no one who really knew me. I would never wake up to see the colorful sunrises of Arizona with the purple mountains in the distance or the colorful sunsets of my home state. Finally, the weight of it all had been too much for me to put off and with the sounds of a thunderclaps filling the air, I cried myself to sleep.

When morning came I woke up first, took a shower then went back to my desk to finish up my homework while emotionally drained. Although the feelings still lingered, I already had my moment last night and needed to move on for my own sake. I was still alive and wasn't going to let the twenty years I put into this life be wasted a giving up would be a disservice to my friends and family, so I knew that was not an option which left only one option left: move on. I could sit here and think of hundreds of cliché line to motivate myself but I decided to simply take it one day at a time for now. After having finding the motivation to move on I finished the assignment and got ready for the day.

* * *

The rest of the week past normally with not much happening in the past few days and it was now a peaceful Sunday morning.

"Nikita! What did Peach say about Dust experiments in the dorm?" Oliver said as he scrambled to find a fire extinguisher.

"I am sorry! It is too far to walk for a simple experiment. I did not mean to catch the table on fire."

"You should have known that could've happened when you were using fire Dust."

Did I say peaceful? I meant to say chaotic.

I was jolted awake to the smell of smoke and Anna yelling in panicked French at Nikita. Then Oliver was woke up in a similar fashion and was in more of a panic than I was as he was responsible for the room and our well being. Taking the fire extinguisher out from under the sink in the kitchen, Oliver quickly put out the fire and let out a sigh of relief it didn't spread from the desk. Needless to say, Nikita got an earful by both Oliver and Anna while I sat and silently shook my head. Thankfully, Nikita offered to buy a new desk and not do Dust experiments in the room again. I had been silent because yesterday was our team training day, which had wiped me out and left me a little sore. As per agreement made yesterday, most of our Saturday mornings would be spent training as a team. Mainly the training would consist of basic exercises and sparring matches but today was basic exercises such as push ups, stretches and running.

I merely slumped back onto my bed to try to go back to sleep since it was about six in the morning and I wanted to sleep in. However, my mind was wide awake now and refused to let me drift off so I slowly pushed myself up and sighed. Feeling my body pop in several places as I got back out of bed felt nice and served to help me fully wake up.

"So boss, what do we have planned for today?" I asked while trying to pop my neck.

"Anna, can you go with Nikita to replace the desk?" Oliver said, gesturing to the toasted table.

"Oui." Anna said as she dragged Nikita out of the dorm.

Oliver and I shot each other a quizzical look before I shrugged it off. "Well, with that out of the way I don't have anything else planned."

"Wanna spar?" I suggested.

"Alright."

The two of us made our way to the arena which was opened on weekends for practicing purposes. As we walked, I thought about how I was going to carry all four of my weapons on me without having them across my torso like Blackbeard did with his flintlocks. I had thought about only using one pair but the 1851s were mine while the Schofields had a melee form and I felt oddly compelled to not alter the 1851s. I guess I could add a second set of holsters, but that would cut down the amount of ammo I could carry. Although, using pouches to hold the ammo could be more useful then individual bullet loops. I don't know, I'll figure it out later as right now I need to worry about my fighting skills. After I finished my inner monologue, we had just exited the dormitory and after a minute of walking in silence Oliver turned to look at me.

"You seem lost in thought." He stated bluntly.

"Yeah, it seems to happen more often nowadays." I replied.

A sly smile appeared on my leader's face. "Is it about Coco?"

I shook my head. "Really?"

"What? It's not a bad thing."

"No, but this is hardly the time for this conversation."

"And why is that?"

"Well... I uh... I don't know." I admitted.

Oliver stopped walking and turned to me again after I stopped. "I think I know what is going through your mind: the classic does she or doesn't she? I've been Coco's friend for close to seven years, I know when she's interested in someone."

"No I understood that, I'm not some comically dense... blonde." I said trailing off.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just deja vu. Anyways, its just that I've only known her for about a week."

"I can understand that, but you should take the risk."

"Yeah."

Oliver sighed. "I wouldn't wait too long, as Coco might become interested in someone else."

After our talk, we finally made it to the training arena and we found a small unoccupied training ring before we dressed in combat clothes and armed ourselves. I decided to rock the Schofields again as they were the only ones that had two modes. Once I had gotten armed I walked out to the ring to see Oliver standing there, waiting.

"So anything in particular you want to work on?" I asked as I took my place across from Oliver.

"Your hand-to-hand could use some improvement."

My hands hovered over the revolvers and focused my aura out, feeling the warmth wash over me. "I had a feeling you were going to say that."

I let Oliver make the first move as it is much easier to react then to make the opening move. Oliver drew his sword/pistol weapon which looked like a standard cavalry sword and a Mauser C96 and leveled it at me. I made a foolish mistake of thinking it was a taunt because bullets came flying and a few had struck me, and fuck did that hurt. I still couldn't tell what hurt more, a minigun compacted into a handbag to the ribs or several pistol rounds to the chest from about twenty feet. I quickly drew my weapons and fired off two shots apiece while walking to the right as Oliver had emptied his weapon. Now realizing that he either had to reload or use the melee aspect of his weapon I rushed him to put pressure on him. Shifting my weapons into their melee form, I opened with a right hook which was met with the flat of his sword. Seeing the opportunity, I fired the weapon on my left wrist which added more force to the punch to his gut, staggering him.

In a swift action, I found his sword slamming into my side which cause me to stagger a bit before I found myself on the defensive, barely dodging or blocking a flurry of strikes. I had my hands up much like boxers do to protect my face, which left and opening for Oliver to exploit and in the mist of his blockable attacks he hit me in the stomach with the pommel before hitting me across the face when I lowered my arms out of reflex. I was sent rolling on the floor but quickly recovered and changed my weapons back into their gun modes and leveled them at Oliver. This time, I felt a tingling almost numbing sensation travel from my brain to my spine then finally to my arms in unison with the electricity that signaled my semblance kicking in. As per the last two times, everything slowed down to a crawl while my arms retained their normal speed.

Not wasting any time, I aimed the weapons carefully and fired the remaining four shots from each revolver and then began to charge at him. However, the second I told my body to move my legs the world quickly resumed its pace. I guess my semblance has its limits and a mans got to know his limitations. Regardless, I made my advance while switching weapon forms and prepared to go on the offensive. Again, I opened by fainting a right hook to distract him as I went for a gut punch with my other fist. Then, I followed up with a kick to his ribs but I didn't expect him to catch my leg after it struck him. Quickly, I shifted the weapon on my right hand back gun form and fired only to be met with a click. I gave Oliver a sheepish grin before he yanked on my leg and hit me in the chest and sent me to the floor.

"Ouch." I groaned after impacting the floor.

Thinking quickly, I kicked at the back of his knees which caused him to fall down too then I threw a punch at his gut but he rolled out of the way. I went to throw another punch but I stopped after feeling the cold steel pressed against my neck. Oliver had gotten into a kneeling position and had placed his weapon against my neck and had a look that said 'I win'. I reached out with my right hand, grabbed onto his hand that was on his weapon, pulled forward and followed up with an uppercut. I rose to my feet and while he went to get up, I quickly began to reload my right weapon. I had put the fourth round in the cylinder by the time he had got up and lunged at me. Quickly, I stopped my reload and I felt my semblance kick in again and I used the slowed time to fan the hammer because I knew I wouldn't be able to get off all of the round aiming normally. Fanning the hammer, the four freshly loaded rounds left the gun and struck Oliver's gut causing him to begin to fall over.

Once my semblance ended, Oliver landed on his back only to quickly jump back to his feet and hit me on the shoulder, the gut, the rib then the other shoulder and across my face with the flat of his sword. Those attacks finally did me in and I was back on the ground and seriously regretting sparring today.

' _Oh well. The only easy day was yesterday._ ' I thought as I got back to my feet.


	7. Chapter 7: Learning to Live Life

Chapter 7: Learning to Live Life

* * *

"You know, my jaw still hurts." I explained as I rubbed the sore skin.

"Not entirely my fault you didn't block that attack." Oliver said, taking a bite of his lunch. "It was pretty predictable."

"I'm hurt that you guys decided to spar and I wasn't there to watch you get your ass handed to you, cowboy." Coco teased.

Nikita had a confused look on her face about what Coco had said. "Its an expression and an exaggeration." I replied.

"That has yet to be seen." Coco continued.

"Bite me." I shoot back.

Upon seeing Coco's grin I knew I had played right into her game. "I didn't know you were so kinky."

"Shut up and don't put those demons in my head." I stated.

"Moving away from the flirting idiots, do you guys have to write a five page paper for Peach?" Oliver said, thankfully changing the subject.

"Oh, yeah." Velvet spoke up. "I've started it but its not easy."

"I have already finished it." Nikita chimed in.

Everyone except Yatsu turned to look at her in amazement. "H-how? That got assigned yesterday." Fox said what everyone was thinking.

Nikita had a happy, almost smug look on her face. "I have always found Dust and its applications fascinating."

"Is that why you almost started a fire in your dorm room a few days ago?" Yatsu had asked, genuinely curious about that situation.

"Yes." Nikita said a little bit down. "I have promised to no longer preform experiments in the dorm room."

"Right." Coco drawled. "Back to the previous topic, I don't understand why we have to do heavy schoolwork like that when were training to fight monsters."

Yatsu looked up from his food to send a pointed stare at Coco. "You better not slack off in regards to this assignment."

"I'm not saying I'm going to big guy, I just find it odd." The leader of CFVY defended.

Checking the time, we realized that lunch hour was almost over and hurried off to our next classes. Coco and I rushed to make it to Goodwitch's on time. Although lunch was from 12:15 to 1:00, combat class was the longest class the school offered and was the longest class I took prior was a two hour math class. I don't know whats worse: being beaten up for three hours or being _mentally_ beaten for two hours with trigonometry. Either way, I had to make it to this class on time or I'd feel the wrath of Goodwitch.

"You really have your head in the clouds most of the time." Coco stated.

"I know. Lot to think about, I guess."

"Anything interesting?"

I figured now might be a good time to try my luck. I mean I willingly decided to go to a school to fight demonic monsters for a living and I'm going to play the wait and see game with Coco. Yeah, right. There is a good chance, like I've said, that I could die young so I should take a few risks and try to actually live life instead of playing it safe all the time.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

Coco shot me an intrigued look. "Oh, do tell."

"Well. I have this rash." I joked only to be met with a smack and a glare from the mocha haired girl. "I'm kidding. In all seriousness, I wanted to know if you wanted to go out some time."

"Finally deciding to put the moves on me, huh?" Coco joked before her expression returned to normal. "Alright Jakob, name the time and place."

"This Sunday and a nice dinner at... say six-ish?"

"A little old fashioned but I can't object to a 'nice dinner'."

"What would you want to do for a first date?"

Coco's signature Cheshire Cat grin returned to her face. "First date? Someone's full of themselves. But to answer your question, a breakfast or a lunch date would be more my style."

"I wouldn't be opposed to either of those if you want to."

"Ever the gentleman. Sunday, be outside my dorm at 9:30 and I know the perfect place for a breakfast date." Coco stated as she entered the auditorium before me. "Oh, I plan on cashing in some of those questions you owe me."

' _Oh, right forgot about that. Well, the last time... wait, do I even have any money?_ ' A thought ripped through my mind.

As I took a seat in the stands, I pulled out my scroll and looked through it desperately for some kind of bank account. Thankfully, Murphy had decided to fuck off in this situation and I found the account and it had a nice sum of three thousand lien. Thank you Wednesday.

"Mister Liath!"

' _Oh, shit._ '

* * *

After class ended and I somehow made it to my room, I sluggishly opened the door and made my way over to my bed to collapse in it after the brutal day of training in the combat class. I felt like my body was entirely locked up and my body, namely my arms and legs. It turns out that I had my scroll out just as class begun and Goodwitch has a _very_ strict policy on scroll usage in class and a _very_ brutal punishment for said policy. Long story short, I will never even think about looking at my scroll ever again.

"Are you okay?" Nikita asked.

I weakly held up my hand with a thumbs up before it falls back onto the bed.

"Do you need anything?"

I raised my hand again, this time with a thumbs down.

"I know you're probably not up to it Jakob, but the desk came in, Anna isn't here and this is kind of a three person thing." Oliver said from the doorway.

"Goddamn it." I muttered into my pillow before pushing myself up.

* * *

As the next morning came, my body had recovered pretty well thanks to Aura and the natural regenerative state of sleep. I took a shower, got dressed and ate breakfast before starting on more homework. Its the second Wednesday of the school year and the workload had reached full swing and I tried my hardest not to let it pile up and get swamped. Most of the work was surprisingly from Peach's class while I first assumed that Oobleck's class would be the source of my mountain of homework. While, it seems like Dust is this magical substance, it behaves much like most chemical compounds and reacts and acts differently with other Dust and other substances.

The biggest misconception about I felt I had about this world... from somewhere, is that the people here are not as smart since they've dedicated most of their time to survival. These people have managed to create advanced robotics, airships to name a few while we are still decades away from those technologies. Dust may help fuel these technologies, but the ability to make functioning designs of such complex machines speak volumes to their intellect. Dust Studies is very similar to chemistry which is the reason why the homework is plentiful and complex but it is something familiar to me.

Moving on from my internal rant, I shifted my focus back to my work. I may have never really enjoyed chemistry and math those were two of my strongest subjects along side English and history. I was blessed with a natural ability to absorb those concepts pretty easy but biology and a few other science classes were nightmares. Although, I'm beginning to remember how much the plentiful schoolwork can make me want to pull my hair out. Thankfully, I learned the art of cramming essays in at the last second so I finished that five page slug-fest of a paper for Peach and pushed it aside then let out a breath of relief.

"Are you okay?" Anna asks as she exits the bathroom.

"Yup. Just finished that essay." I said, leaning back in my chair and closing my eyes.

"I don't know how you and Nikita can do that." Anna stated.

I smugly smiled, thinking back to the many times I bullshited a paper and got an A. "Lots of practice."

* * *

A few days had past and no it was Friday morning and I was now in Port's class barely hanging on to consciousness as the veteran Huntsman raved on about his adventures from when he was younger. I was lucky that I had a monotone teacher in high school so I knew the tips and tricks to staying awake or listening for the more important information.

"My first mission as a freshly graduated Huntsman, was one of trials and great physical strength and superior mental fortitude. The small town of Frost River had called for assistance due to the insurmountable waves of Grimm that kept attacking the town. The most common Grimm may have been Beowolves, the people kept seeing one Grimm in every attack: a Siren."

I practically snapped to full attention hearing the name of the Grimm that could have killed me in initiation.

"One of the most dangerous Grimm I had come across at the time, the Siren would be the most difficult challenge I had faces. Steeling my resolve, I began my journey to into the wilderness to find my prey and sure enough I had found it. The Grimm tried to use its natural psychic abilities to incapacitate me but I would not fall for its devilish ways, I focused my Aura to my eyes to prevent its effects and readied my weapons. From what my grandfather had told me, I knew that they had a weakness to electric Dust and in one shot I had vanquished the vile creature and saved the town!"

I scoffed at his probable retelling of what happened but there was one thing to take away, Sirens had a weakness to electric Dust. I quickly wrote that down in my note book and added a note to buy some Dust, since I was running out of the surplus that was given to me when I first arrived here. The rest of the class was just him talking about his heroic triumphs over the Grimm and the celebrations that was held in his honor; nothing really to add.

* * *

Once classes ended and I changed into my combat clothes, I made my way to the range to continue practicing my accuracy with my weapons and my reflexes. As I opened my locker, I noticed there was a new gunbelt that accompanied my weapons in the locker. It was the same brown leather with two holsters at the hips but another two holsters crossed over each other at the back and had pouches that held bullets and there was still bullet loops near the front of the belt.

' _Someone here can read minds and I know who my money is on._ ' I thought as I put the new belt on and placed my weapons in them. I put the Schofields on my hips and had the 1851s on the back set of holsters. I closed my locker to see Professor Wednesday standing there with a proud smile on his face.

"You know, you remind me of some of those old west legends." Wednesday commented.

Taking a second to look myself over I couldn't really disagree. "Yeah. I take it this is your doing?"

"Correct. I figured you'd want to carry around all of your weapons."

I sighed. "Thanks." Wednesday shot me an odd look. "For all the shit you've done for me."

"I should be the one thanking you. You've given everything to help me even after learning that I used you for my own gain."

"I still hate you for that old man. This isn't about you nor is it even about me; its about doing the right thing. I can't sit back knowing I could make a difference and help save lives." I explained before walking away.

I found an open spot at the range and started to practice my accuracy and reflexes. I had the targets at a range of 20 feet and had them moving as well as a few that would pop up. It was a bit of a challenge but I was slowly getting the hang of these weapons and dealing with targets on the move and have decent reaction shots against the pop up targets. There were plenty of missed shots, that's a given but it was a part of learning. There are lessons to learn in failure as well as in victory but that's an obvious statement that most people are familiar with.

I reloaded my weapons and set all of the targets to pop up at random distances between five feet and twenty feet and made the targets random. Once finished reloading, I placed my weapons in my holsters and got ready. The first target, a Beowolf, popped up about seven feet away and to my left which caused my to draw my left Schofield and fire. The target flashed yellow as it struck center mass and I fired a second shot and it flashed red. Then a new target, an Ursa, popped up five feet in front of me. Using my left weapon, I swung it over until it was lined up on its face and fired and the target flashed red. Two targets popped up this time, causing my to draw my other Schofield and aim one gun at each target and fired. One struck its mark and that target flashed yellow but the other one missed. Quickly I dispensed another two shots this time 'killing' one and 'wounding' the other. I then fired a final shot to deal with the last target and it struck the Ursa in the neck and the target turned red.

Looking over at the panel on the wall next to me, I saw that the time was about eight and three quarter seconds which was fairly decent for not using my semblance. I had been practicing without my semblance because I do not want to be reliant on it and practically be shit out of luck if my Aura runs out. Also, maybe working on my reflexes in real time will make them even faster in that slow mo time. Thinking about my semblance and weapons I realized I should probably put names to them. My semblance I could simply call lightning hands for obvious reasons but my weapons were a bit of a different story.

Coming up with names that aren't predictable or edgy is kind of a problem and something that has been causing me some problems. I also want to name each weapon which also isn't helping and I'm sure that weapons also have to pertain to the color rule. Two possible names I thought of was Veritas and Aequitas which is Truth and Justice in Latin but finding a second set of names was the main problem. Either way, I'll think of something somewhat original and not edgy to name my weapons.

' _Back to practice._ ' I thought as I refocused my attention.

* * *

Most of my Friday afternoon was spent at the range before heading to the cafeteria for dinner then going to my dorm room to get some much needed sleep. Saturday had been spent training with my team, which was basic exercises just as they were last week but next week would be the first team spar. It was going to be me and Anna versus Oliver and Nikita and I was more concerned with facing Nikita more than Oliver. I was familiar with Oliver's weapon and fighting style but not his semblance, while I had not seen Nikita fight or use her semblance. Guessing by the Tesla Coils on her gauntlets, she might have some kind of electrokinesis semblance and channels it into her gauntlets. Getting hit sucks enough, but getting hit with 1.21 gigawatts of electricity would definitely take the cake. Either way, that would be in seven days and I had a more pressing issue to worry about: Coco.

Just like any guy going on a date with an attractive girl, I was beginning to feel a bit nervous and started to think about how I could fuck it up. Of course I wasn't having a full blown panic attack like most characters in shows but I definitely was thinking about it more than I should have. I want things to go relatively smoothly and avoid the first date faux pas that could ruin things. I let out a sigh and let my head hit my pillow, telling myself to stop worrying about it and that I needed to get some sleep in as I had to get up early for a Sunday.

* * *

Morning came and I quickly got up and got my ass in the shower before anyone else was awake. I had this odd habit of waking up early on days I have plans like birthday parties, gatherings and dates. This time I was up by about 7:40 and everyone else was currently sleeping in. Normally, I woke up at about nine in the morning on a Sunday as it had always been the only day I could sleep in on even back home. School and a part time job took up most of my free time and what remained was used for writing. Regardless, I needed to focus on today and getting ready for the day. Once I finished my shower, I got dressed in my casual clothes and decided to spend the next hour and a half working on homework to pass the time.

Looking up from my schoolwork, I saw that it was 9:27. I quickly grabbed my scroll and out of habit, I started to look for my wallet which was already in my pocket. I had found it a few days ago while I was going through my suitcase and it was filled with a single card which resembled a standard credit card. I exited my dorm room walked down a room, which was CFVY's dorm, and waited patiently outside of the room. I had thought about knocking, but with my luck I would wake up someone who would be sleeping in. Instead, I texted Coco to let her know I was ready. A few seconds later, the door opened and out stepped Coco, dressed in her more casual clothes from the other day and her sunglasses and beret.

"Let's get going then." Coco stated as she began to head down the hallway.

"So where are we going?" I asked as I caught up to her and walked alongside her.

Coco held up her finger and wagged it side to side. "That would ruin the surprise and I'm not sure you would be familiar with it since its a local business."

I nodded. "Fair point."

"You'll love it. Its a nice, quiet place with killer coffee and its been months since I've been there." Coco added on.

"You know, I could go for a cup of coffee that isn't home brewed and some real breakfast."

"Good, because you don't really have a choice anymore."

The flight into Vale was oddly calm. Normally, I had an issue with being in window seats on airplanes but I couldn't keep my eyes from looking at the city below us and the horizon beyond that. While it was a great sight, it also reminded me that it was all in danger and most of it would be in ruins by next year. I had remembered that much but precise dates, motives, people or anything beyond that is still lost to my mind. I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and focused on the present. We landed and Coco lead my through the streets of Vale until we found this small cafe that looked oddly familiar. We entered the building and Coco asked for a balcony table and we were told to take an open table. The waitress that was walking up to us was a girl about our age with pitch black hair and bright violent eyes and she looked familiar.

"Shedo? You work here?" Coco asked, bewildered.

"Yeah, I got this job just before we started at Beacon." She explained as she placed menus in front of us.

Now I remembered why she looked familiar, she's a student at Beacon and she's in mine and Coco's combat class. Her combat clothing consisted of black skinny jeans and a black hoodie under dark violet samurai armor that covers her chest, shoulders, forearms and a pair of armored boots. She also wears a helmet with a mask that covered the lower half of her face and wielded a pair of katanas that she kept stored on the back of her armor.

"I'm sorry about the fight on Tuesday. I didn't thing Goodwitch would stack the odds that badly." Shedo said.

Coco briefly laughed. "I'm not sorry it was entertaining to watch."

I responded by glaring at my friend. "It's in the past. Now I know not to have my scroll out during class."

Shedo nodded in response. "Anyways, what can I get you to drink?"

"I'll take a coffee." I stated.

"Cappuccino, please." Coco replied.

Shedo scribbled down the orders. "I'll be back shortly with your drinks."

With that she left to fill our order. "Come here often?"

"Is that a pick up line or an actual question?" Coco joked. I simply responded with a deadpan look. "Yes, I've been here a few times over the years."

I nodded in response. "I haven't seen her around much but she doesn't look like the type to be a waitress."

"She definitely a good fighter by the way she laid you out in that fight." Coco stated smugly.

I scoffed. "Please, most people here can lay me out its not an achievement."

Coco laughed. "I wasn't going to say it."

"Sure you weren't." I replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, you're right I would have said it."

"Anyway, she seems nice."

Coco nodded. "Yeah, unless she's in a fight otherwise she'll show no mercy."

"Hey, you didn't either when you fought me."

"Touche."Coco said, just before Shedo came back with our drinks.

"Thank you." I said as the drink was placed in front of me.

"Are you guys ready to order or do you still need a minute?"

I had found that this place has crepes so I had already decided on having those. I looked over to Coco and she seemed like she was ready to order as well.

"Yeah, I'll have the crepes please."

"I guess I'll also have the crepes."

"Alright, I'll be back out with your order." Shedo said, writing down the order and walking away.

Coco hummed in acknowledgment. "Now, we still have a few questions to focus on."

"Alright, ask away."

"Good, now question six: do you have any brothers of sisters?"

That question had reminded me of the fact I may not see my family again but I didn't let it show. "Yeah, I have an older brother by two years but he... took a different career path than I did."

"I have a brother who's three years younger than me although he is training to be a Huntsman." Coco said, a layer of resentment in her tone.

"And you don't want him to?"

The fashion forward leader of Team CFVY sighed. "Not really, he doesn't truly understand the dangers of being a Huntsman like you and I do. He's got a pretty romantic view on it and is too stubborn to see it differently but I'll support him no matter what."

I quietly sipped my coffee after putting cream and sugar in, silently praying I didn't bring up anything too heavy.

"So what does your brother do?"

I put my drink down. "Well, he always had a gift for the sciences so he left home to peruse a career in R&D." I explained.

"For Atlas?"

I nodded. "I'd thought about doing something similar when I was younger but I wanted to do something with my life that directly helped people."

"Is that why you are going to Beacon?"

"Yeah, I've always had this innate drive to help others and wanted to do something with my life that would make a better tomorrow."

"Definitely noble intentions. I want to become a Huntress to also make the world a little bit safer, but it also pays good and gives me a chance to go beyond Vale. I'd only been to Atlas for a few business trips with my father and want to see more of Remnant." Coco explained.

"Yeah, its nice to be somewhere new for a while and having the money to back it up helps."

Coco took a sip of her drink again. "Moving on to the next question and this may not be a great question to ask on a date but I have to know: do you have any ex-girlfriends?"

"I only ever had one. She and I dated for maybe three weeks before we decided that we didn't like each other like that."

"Really, only one?" Coco asked, her eyes narrowing.

I couldn't help but throw up my hands. "What?"

"I would have figured you would have three."

"Well, I wasn't the same person I am now a few years ago to say the least."

"Let me guess: quiet, reserved, and socially inept?" She asked to which I nodded. "I honestly can't see that."

I laughed a bit. "Believe me, I was. But that's in the past and something I've tried to move away from."

Coco chuckled. "Mission accomplished. You know you're a pretty interesting guy, cowboy."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I asked.

Coco's face was adorned by her signature smirk. "I'll tell you later."

I sighed. "Why do I put up with you?" I responded over dramatically.

"Because I'm a fun person and an attractive young woman with great fashion sense." Coco bragged waving her hand around.

I only laughed as I shook my head. "Fair point."

' _You know, maybe things will work out fine here._ ' I said to myself.

After we ate our food and Shedo brought us the bill, we stayed for a while talking about things like schoolwork and what our teams have been up to. Apparently, Fox is quite the joker and has a habit of making blind jokes much like Toph from Avatar did. Of course, Coco vented about how some students were picking on Velvet as well as Velvet not wanting anyone to take action because it would only make it worse.

"I just wish she would at least talk to a professor or someone who can act." Coco finished with a sigh.

"I understand, and I get you're the team leader but Velvet feels like she can handle it."

"Maybe, but how long before they start doing things like smacking her books out of her hands or even pulling on her ears?" Coco asked rhetorically.

' _Deja vu._ '

"If she doesn't do anything then, we'll get involved." I stated.

"Agreed. Now, back to an earlier topic."

I eyed with a cocked eyebrow Coco. "Which topic?"

"You know the one. About you being interesting good or bad."

"Ah, you finally made up your mind."

Coco smiled and shook her head. "Oh no, I've had my mind made up about you since Tuesday and I think a nice dinner or something a week or two from today would work."

"So, you're asking me to another date?"

She shot me a deadpan look. "Yes cowboy, I'm asking you to a second date. One condition though."

"What?"

"You shave."

I brought a hand up to my cheek and felt that I now had a very short beard now. "Deal, I would have shaved anyways."

"Good, now we should get going."

"Yeah." I said as I pulled out my wallet.

"What are you doing?" Coco asked.

I blinked. "Uh, paying the bill."

"I got it."

"No, I asked you out on this date, I pay the bill." I replied.

"Just because you're a guy doesn't mean you have to pay."

I shook my head. "That's not it at all, I asked you out so I'll pay for it and since you asked me out for the next date you'll pay. Sound far."

"Alright, at least let me cover the tip."

"Nope."

Coco shook her head. "You're a stubborn man, cowboy."

"Yeah, yeah I am." I said putting the money on the bill which included a twenty percent tip.


	8. Chapter 8: Trouble Brewing

Chapter 8: Trouble Brewing

* * *

After getting back to Beacon, I said goodbye to Coco before entering my dorm room. The second I closed the door and looked up I was greeted by my partner dangerously close to my face and the others a decent distance behind her. I jumped back, nearly slamming my back into the door as I did.

"What the fuck!" I cried, startled by the whole situation.

"So, how did it go?" Anna asked in a singsong voice.

I raised an eyebrow. "How did what go?"

"Your date." Oliver said for the red headed sharpshooter of Team ORNJ.

I shrugged, before walking around my unusually hyper partner. "It went fine."

"Just fine?" Anna continued to prod.

"Yeah, all we did was talk and have breakfast, what did you expect its only the first date? "

" _First_ date, so you and Coco are dating?" Anna happily asked.

I shook my head. "No, not yet at least. These things take time you know."

"Yeah, but you two are so cute together."

"Anna, I appreciate the enthusiasm." I said smiling. "Nikita, you're uncharacteristically quiet."

"Oh, I am simply listening."

"Uh huh." I paused for a moment and looked around the room and saw my three teammates were involved in this conversation. "I don't mean to sound rude but why are you guys so interested in this?"

"Because you two have great chemistry already." Anna explained.

Nikita took a second to think. "I guess it is because you are my friend and friends what the best for each other."

I nodded before I decided to start on some schoolwork and began to walk to my desk.

"I feel like you need a distraction."

I turned back to face my leader. "What?"

The saber-wielding teen sighed. "You've been putting your nose to the grindstone with homework and any free time you have has been spent mostly at the training range. The only time I've seen you relax is sometimes in the mornings and the weekend before classes started."

I paused for a moment and thought back and found myself unable to disagree with him. Maybe I've been pushing myself a little too hard. Then again, I _need_ to be at my best since I'm training to take down Grimm for the rest of my life. I'm still just some kid from Earth who didn't think things though and got in over my head so I needed to perform for the sake of myself and others.

"Well, I... I guess I have been working myself a bit hard, but so far I'm O-for-three in fights."

Oliver scoffed. "Okay, one of those fights was a one versus five-"

"Don't remind me. Please."

"Another fight was against Coco, who was top of our graduating class at Signal and still in the top five of our year, which you held up well considering she thought you broke her glasses." I shuddered at that reminder. "As for our spar last week, it was pretty even for the most part. Like I said, you just need to refine your form a bit."

"Yeah, but I could be better. I'm already behind from not attending a combat school." I explained.

"Jakob, you're selling yourself short." Anna stated. "Combat schools teach only the basic which you seem to have down for the most part."

"In addition, according to the rankings so far you are ranked one hundred forty-five out of four hundred sixteen students." Nikita said, completely from memory given she didn't have a scroll in her hands.

I threw up my hands at that. How in the hell was I ranked that high after getting my shit pushed in three times in the span of two weeks. I was expecting to be close to the three hundred mark at best. "How?" Was all I could muster to say.

"Well, the rankings are a combination of academic grades, combat scores and attendance." Nikita rattled off. "Professor Goodwitch does not solely give combat scores on the basis win/lose but also factors in items such as, form, accuracy, reaction time, endurance, versatility-"

"You don't have to cite all of the grading criteria, Nikita." Oliver interrupted.

Nikita laughed nervously. "Right, sorry."

"What the resident mad scientist is trying to say is that just because you lost a few fights doesn't mean you're doing bad. You're ranked in the top fifteen in accuracy for our class." Anna summarized.

"I take offense to the idea I am a 'mad scientist'." Nikita stated.

"You did burn one of our tables with your experiments." Anna retorted.

As Nikita attempted to defend herself, I took the time to think about being that good of a shot and I realized that it made sense. I had a semblance that aided in my ability to land shots and I had been spending a lot of time at the range practicing, not to mention the times I went shooting back on Earth. Although, top fifteen seems a bit of a stretch but who am I to argue with that.

* * *

The week flew by faster than I expected and sure enough, the day of dread came to pass. It was our team training day, which meant I was going to have to fight Nikita while Anna fights Oliver and to add on to how fucked I was, I had no plan and no information to help me against her while she's seen me fight and knows my semblance. Currently, we were in the training arena with me and my partner on one side and the other half of the team on the other all the while, _Il Triello_ played in my head as we waited for Coco to start the match. Team CFVY had caught word of the spar and decided to take the time to watch the fight along side Abigail, and Shedo who was invited by Coco.

I shook my head, refocusing my attention on my teammate turned opponent. I had my hands hovering over my weapons just ready for the fight to begin, as I observed Nikita, looking for any tells; any sign of what she was going to do. If she was going to open the fight off by rushing me, or was she going to use the ranged aspect of her weapon. Was she going to wait for me to attack first and then counter attack? These were all things that I thought about as we waited. It surely must have been a matter of seconds since Coco asked us if we were ready but for me it felt like two minutes passed with the four of us in a standoff.

"Fight!" Coco yelled.

The second those words were uttered Oliver rushed Anna and I made my move. Quickly activating my semblance, I drew my 1851s and opened up with four shots wanting to save the rounds in the Schofields for melee attacks later. As my bullets closed in on their mark, they were zapped out of existence by the Tesla coils on Nikita's gauntlet. As I exited from my semblance, I barely saw a wave of electricity barrel towards me which caused my to drop onto my stomach to avoid the attack. As I began to stand up I heard the rapidly approaching footsteps of Nikita charging me. Using my semblance to buy me time, I put away my 1851s, drew my Schofields and turned them into their melee form.

This time I had a surprise waiting for Nikita, I had replaced the standard Dust rounds I normally used with anti-gravity Dust for this fight. I threw a punch at her gut that narrowly 'missed' before elbowing her in the rib while firing the weapon. Sure enough, Nikita was floating in the air and drifting due to the hit which backfired as she was still close enough to throw a punch, which she did. Her fist landed against my back and I was soon electrocuted for a second before responding by elbowing her with my left arm which caused her to fall to the ground.

Not wasting any time, I whipped around and punched where she was, only for her to roll out of the way at the last second. She then got up and threw a left hook at me which I narrowly dodge then she followed up a kick to the gut which I thankfully caught. In a split second, she brought her other leg up behind my neck and rolled onto the floor, taking me with her. I rolled away, not giving her an opportunity to attack while I got to my feet. Once I'd gotten to my feet, she hit me in the gut and discharged another blast of electricity which hurt worse than anything I had experienced before.

I converted my weapons back into gun form and shot twice into Nikita's gut, which caused her to stumble back so she wasn't zapping the hell out of me. Taking a quick glance to the Aura meters, I noticed my Aura was already at sixty-two percent. I then went on the offensive, throwing punch after punch in an attempt to keep her from using her weapon after shifting my weapons into melee form. Once, I had broke her guard courtesy of an uppercut I activated my semblance, switched my weapons back and fired all of my remaining bullets then threw the Schofields off to my right, drew my 1851s and emptied them as well.

When I exited my semblance, I dove to my right to retrieve the Schofields. I left the 1851s on the floor for now after picking up the other revolvers and shifted them into melee form. I then charged a recovering Nikita and threw a flurry of blows but that stopped once Nikita had grabbed my hands and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. This time she threw my hands up and kicked me in the chest, sending me to the floor. As I started to get up, I found out why she didn't just electrocute me as she was reaching behind her back before throwing two used Dust crystals; she was reloading. Using my semblance, I reloaded both of the weapons, before firing all twelve of my freshly reloaded bullets after time resumed its normal pace. As I reached to find more bullets to feed my guns with, all I found was empty bullet loops which caused me to curse to myself as I put my weapons once again into their melee form.

I then decided that I had one option, which was rush Nikita since she hadn't finished reloading yet. I ran forward and reeled my right hand back, hoping Nikita would fall for it and step to her right. She saw right through my plan and sidestepped left, caught my wrist with her left, put her right on the collar of my shirt and threw me to the floor. I pushed myself up and rolled my shoulders before taking up a boxer's stance. Nikita responded by kicking my arm with one leg before kicking me in the gut, breaking my guard. I blocked the two punches she threw and tried to kick her in the ribs which she pushed away and I lost my balance. Capitalizing on the moment, Nikita punched me in the back then followed it up with a kick that put me face first on the ground. I slowly pushed myself off the ground only to be met with a hand on my right shoulder.

"You are tired and low on Aura so your odds of winning are not good. Please, surrender so I do not have to shock you. Again." Nikita warned.

"Yeah... I guess that would be the smart option." I said before quickly grabbing her hand and pulled her to the floor too.

I threw a few punches that landed while she was surprised but after the third punch she grabbed my arm and shot me a disappointed look before shocking the holy hell out of me. Thankfully it wasn't too long and once it was over I elected to remain on the floor to give my worn body a rest knowing by now my Aura must have been in the red. Sure enough, looking at the screen I saw that I have fifteen percent Aura levels which meant I was out but I'd at least put Nikita in the yellow. I got off the ground, picked up my weapons and walked over to the others and sat down with a sigh.

"That looked painful, Jakob." Velvet said.

"You don't know the half of it." I muttered in exhaustion.

"Well, at least you're getting better, cowboy." Coco commented.

I was too tired at the moment to really process whether or not that was a joke or a genuine complement so I simply nodded. I was too tired to really take in how the other part of the fight was going, but it seemed like Anna was actually holding her ground in the one on two. I'll say this: between a compressed minigun, the flat of a sword to the jaw and who knows how many volts of electricity, the latter sucks the most. Sure options one and two hurt like hell but they're simple blunt trauma but option three is blunt trauma and being hit with an fuck-ton of volts that cause your whole body to spasm. I got brought back to reality as Yatsuhashi handed me some kind of drink and I quickly downed the concoction with out really thinking what it was. What ever it was, I felt more energized and my pain had subsided a bit. I handed the container back to the mountain of a man with a thanking nod.

"You know, I half expected her attacks to turbocharge my semblance." I replied to Coco.

"I'd actually want to see that." Velvet said.

"So would I." Fox replied, smirk ever present on his face.

"Hey, Shedo." I said grabbing said girl's attention. "How come your fourth member didn't come?"

"Rust unfortunately is terribly introverted and tends to stay in the dorm room, tinkering with his gadgets." Shedo explained.

"He could get along with little mad scientist over there." Coco said pointing to Nikita.

"I take offense to that!" Nikita replied in the middle of the fight.

"From what I heard its an accurate description." Yatsuhashi added.

* * *

Salem had reorganized her plans to adapt to the new information she had 'acquired' from the Terran and sat patiently. Apparently, the young man had escaped from the Siren and according to a trusted scout, he was a student under Ozpin now. She thought that it was unfortunate because she could offer the boy far more and could use him far better than Ozpin. Either way, she now had her upper hand against her rival and her plans could now be set in motion. However, a disturbing thought for Salem was what if the Terran retained some of the memories of the future. If that were to be true, her plans would be in jeopardy of being countered or being exposed.

Salem let out a small sigh as she tried to figure out how to approach this problem. Sure, eliminating him would be the easiest method to prevent his interference, but she could use what he knows to ensure her victory. She could offer the young man far more than Ozpin could, but there was also a chance the boy could be a naive fool just like Ozpin and most of his followers. Maybe, simply dissuading the boy would work but there were too many factors going against all of her options at the moment. For now, she'll have Cinder try find someone who can watch the boy once she gets to Vale in a few days.

* * *

 _I was running as fast as I could through the forest as the fire consumed everything it touched. I weaved between trees as the heat and crackling came closer and closer to me, the smoke in the air made each breath taken a painful burning feeling that threatened to choke the life out of me. I began to cough violently as I continued to push myself forward to avoid the wildfire that was close behind me. As I looked behind me after coughing I saw something amber in the orange flames that looked like eyes. The odd thing was around one of the eyes was an amber flame, then the other eye also became surrounded in amber fire._

* * *

Awaking in a cold sweat, my head flew off of my pillow as my eyes frantically darted around the dark dormitory. Thanks to the night vision from being a Faunus, I saw the shapes and outline of everything so I could see that nothing was out of the ordinary. I quietly let out long deliberate breaths to calm myself and to not wake up nobody. My mind raced through my memories to try to remember where they hell I've seen those eyes before. The more I thought about those eyes, the more the sense of dread rose until it was almost sickening to think about. I shook that feeling from my stomach and tried to focus on going back to bed. Of course, sleep was hard to find that night as my brain kept thinking about those eyes and why were they so important.

* * *

Currently, I sat in my room on a Sunday afternoon on my scroll reading a news article about a Grimm attack on the small village just a few miles to the east of the Emerald Forest. Witnesses report that there was a Siren present during the attack, one that had evidence of being damaged before the attack. It was most likely the same one that nearly killed my at initiation and didn't want to stay put in the Emerald Forest. After reading that article, I found another one that had caught my eye, _Outlaw Gang Return to Red Rock; Seven Dead in Robbery_ which is something I didn't expect to see. Apparently, life beyond the walls of Vale and the other capitals are almost as lawless and chaotic as the old west. I guess much of the world is still technically frontier because of the Grimm limiting expansion in some places. Sure, crime syndicates like Torchwick's exist but I wasn't expecting old fashioned outlaw gangs to be prevalent, but I guess there is more to Remnant than meets the eye.

In that article, it said that there had been a decline in law enforcement beyond Vale since most of the kingdom's attention was focused on Torchwick and the other crime circles based in the city. Also, outlaw bands like these have been responsible for turnover rates for lawmen beyond the wall to rise. Granted, most of the news like this came from the towns and villages further out but that doesn't make the issue any better. Since it is happening on the fringes of the kingdom, most people in Vale could probably care less.

However, the outlaw gang mentioned in the article have been moving closer to Vale since _Vacuo_ of all places forced them out. Vacuo had a very lax attitude and was know for allowing anyone who could survive in, and not having much in the way of law and order besides the huntsman academy. So the fact that Vacuo had forced them out was saying something about the outlaws' character. I closed my scroll and let out a frustrated sigh as I got off of my bed walked for the door. I exited the room and began to walk down to the first floor to get some junk food from the vending machines. Once I came back with a bag of chips in my hand I made my way back to my room to continued to read that article.

"Hey, cowboy." The familiar voice of the fashionista called out from behind me.

"What's up." I greeted after turning to face her, noticing she was dressed in causal clothes and with out her sunglasses.

"Not much, just enjoying the day by myself."

"Where's everyone else?" I asked as I walked over to Coco.

"Vel and Yatsu are in Vale on a date and Fox decided to visit his family for the day."

"Wait, Velvet and Yatsuhashi are dating?"

"I know, I didn't find out till the told me a week ago but they've been together since their second year at Shade. Although, I don't want to be in the room when they come back." The tone in her voice told me everything that I didn't need to know.

I nodded before suddenly shuddering as horrible images filled my brain while I walked over to my dorm.

"Yeah, I know small girl, _big_ guy." Coco teased trying to keep those images in my head.

"Keep that up and you'll have to find some else to annoy." I warned as I walked over to the door to my room threatening to walk away.

Coco laughed while putting her hands up. "Alright, I'll stop but the look on your face was priceless. Oh, I haven't seen you like that since the butt slap during initiation. And I'm fucking with you, they aren't _active_ it's just they get really lovey-dovey and I feel like I should give them their space for a while."

I huffed in annoyance and shot the mocha haired girl a deadpan. "I swear, I don't understand why I put up with you."

"I've told you why, but that's besides the point. I've got nothing to do and I'm board." Coco stated.

"That sounds like a personal problem." I joked and it was my turn to be met with a deadpan. "Okay, anything you have in mind?"

"Wanna watch a movie?"

"Like go into Vale to watch a movie or watch on here?"

Coco waved a hand. "We'll just stay here, no need to go to Vale for a movie."

I opened the door and let Coco in the dorm room first. "Hey, cowboy, where's _your_ team?"

I looked around the room to find it was devoid of three specific people. "Good question, where is my team?"

"You mean you don't know?" Coco replied.

"No, I was preoccupied with reading on my scroll."

"So preoccupied that you didn't notice you were alone?"

"Yeah, I have shitty awareness sometimes now can we move on."

"Are you sure you're not a bat Faunus?"

I chuckled. "Funny. Just set up the movie and I'll arrange us some seats."

There was a nice moment of silence before it was broken by the minigun wielding girl. "Need help finding them?"

"You know what, Adel? You must really want me to kick you out." I joked as I turned to face her.

Coco took a step closer to me. "You wouldn't kick me out."

"Oh, and why is that?"

"Because this is unofficially our second date."

I tried to think of a snappy response but my brain failed me. "Touche."

I should have figured Coco would but on some cheesy b-film with subpar acting, dialogue and plot. The movie we where watching was the standard shitty horror movie where the characters' decision making skill are worse than a two year old and is what gets them killed. Of course, it was so bad it was almost funny to watch and crack jokes at the movie, which is what we spent most of the movie doing and it was a nice change for Coco and I to make jokes at something other than each other. On another note, the seats were sleeping bags rolled up and a few pillows to make it more comfortable and stable. When I was making the 'seats', I thought about putting them into two separate seats but figuring that this was technically a date so I went with one larger seat.

Of course, I was a bit nervous being shoulder to shoulder with a beautiful girl and we're both hormone ridden teenagers who might like each other alone. You see where I'm going with this, I'm worried if push comes to shove I won't listen to the more rational side of my brain. Sure, the movie and making fun of the movie helped keep my mind off of that, but every now and then it would pop back into my head. Thankfully, it didn't seem to show or Coco was too distracted with the movie to notice. All in all, it was a good time even while I was a little distracted from time to time.

* * *

By the time Tuesday rolled around, news surrounding that outlaw gang only increased as their crime spree on the fringes of the kingdom continued. Also by this time, everyone had heard about it in one way or another and we all felt that someone had to stop them. Although, the method I wanted to go about that was different from everyone else as I felt that they would be better off six feet under than in prison. Some of them have already been busted out before and these guys are numerous so I doubt anyone could capture them in one fell swoop. Also, these guys are extremely dangerous and are loaded with stolen money which means they'll offer money to kill people that go after them or someone transporting one of them captive. In the wise words of Major Marquis Warren: "Bring a desperate man in alive is a good way to get yourself dead".

Of course, first I would need to get my hands on some Black Dust because some of those assholes have Aura, then I would need to convince Ozpin to let me hunt them down. Both of which are not likely to happen. Sure, Ozpin had allowed some odd things to happen before such as me attending the academy but I'm sure he has his limits. As for the Black Dust, I would have to somehow graduate Beacon three years early or drop out and join law enforcement in order to get access. So all I can do for now is sit back and hope someone can do something about them while I sit in Goodwitch's class.

Once class was dismissed, I went to the range as for once I had no homework to worry about. Since, I was apparently in the top fifteen most accurate shots in my class I didn't want to lose that position. However, as I opened my locker I heard someone called my name and I looked around to see Anna walking in.

"What's up?" I greeted.

"Hey, can I talk to you about something?"

"Yeah, of course."

"So, I'm sure you've heard about that group of outlaws?" She asked to which I nodded. "Well, they've distracted the kingdom to the point smaller bandit groups have been getting bolder."

"Anna, where is this going?" I asked wanting to get to the point.

"My point is, I'm going to talk with Ozpin about switching to the Ranger program instead of staying with the Huntsman program and I want you to join me. That way you and I might be able to help out dealing with the smaller bandit groups."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Ranger program?"

"Right, forgot you grew up in small town. Most huntsman academies, bar Atlas, have three different programs." She explained. "Two specialty programs and one jack-of-all-trades. There is the main Huntsman program, a Military program and the Ranger program. Rangers are a hybrid between Huntsmen and lawmen in the fact they go after Grimm while having the jurisdiction to work as lawmen in any kingdom."

"What about Oliver and Nikita?"

Anna sighed. "As much as I would love for the whole team to help, Nikita is still too innocent for that line of work and while Oliver might be up to it, I don't know for however, I know you are, I can see it in your eyes."

I thought about it carefully, while this give me a better opportunity to do what I came to Remnant for it was still a deadly decision that I did not need to rush.

"How would missions work if you and I are in a different program than Nikita and Oliver?"

"Not much for the most part, we'd all get called out to deal with Grimm and it wouldn't make too much of a difference until the third year when they start giving solo missions."

"Then why change it now?"

"Because we'll get issued a few missions on our own. The only catch is Ranger missions are a two person deal in the first and second year which is why I'm asking you, I mean we are already partners."

I let out a breath as I thought about it. Here was the one opportunity to start working on what I came here to do. Sure it would be dangerous but so would hunting the Grimm on the regular, so either way I'm not exactly going to be safe. The main difference is that Grimm don't shoot back but they do fight back in any case.

"Fuck it, you got yourself a partner." I said extending my hand.

"I feel like we've done this before." Anna joked as she shook my hand.


	9. Chapter 9: A Needed Change of Scenery

Chapter 9: A Needed Change of Scenery

* * *

The walk over to Ozpin's office was long, as usual, but there was an air about it that made me uneasy. Maybe, it was my mind worrying that Ozpin wouldn't allow us to switch programs this early in the year. Maybe, it was because neither Anna or I talked the entire way there and as we waited in the elevator. Upon the doors opening, I was greeted to Ozpin and Wednesday who seemed to be expecting us, which did not help ease me. They were up to something.

"Ah, Miss Rogue, Mister Liath. What can I do for you?" Ozpin greeted.

"Well, we were wanting to talk to you, headmaster." Anna said.

"We want to change programs to the Ranger program." I explained and Anna nodded in agreement.

Wednesday shot Ozpin a look that said: I told you so. Ozpin ignored the old man and slowly nodded his head.

"I take it this is in light of the increase in criminal activity outside of Vale?" Ozpin asked but his tone indicated he knew the answer.

Anna spoke for both of us. "Qui, we feel like we should do something to help since most of the law enforcement's attention is on the outlaw gang or the crime syndicates here in Vale."

"A very noble and selfless notion." Ozpin sighed before continuing. "You both understand that in addition to fighting the creatures of Grimm you will be fighting dangerous criminals? One who have no qualms about using violence to evade capture."

We both nodded.

"Then, I will make sure that both of you are put into the Ranger program and the correct courses are assigned to you the next semester." Ozpin stated as he tapped on his table.

Something about his quick agreement to our request and not fully making sure that we knew what we were getting into worried me. I knew he had to know that I was helping Wednesday and by extension that I'm also helping him but Anna sure as shit isn't. I knew that he wasn't above using his students to fight his war but I refuse for my team and Team CFVY to get involved in this whole affair. Although, maybe they are destined to since I absolutely am going to be in this untold centuries long cold war. However if I could, I would try my hardest to keep CFVY out of the whole affair.

"On another note, I am glad that the both of you are here as I was about to send for your team as well as Team CFVY." Ozpin explained.

"May I ask why?" Anna asked.

Wednesday wagged his finger. "Ah, that would ruin the surprise." Ozpin shot the old man a pointed look. "Fine, ruin the surprise. You are being assigned your first mission. We'll go over the details when everyone gets here, that way I don't have to repeat myself."

I sighed in resignation, hoping he would have just told us. I didn't know why I expected him or Ozpin to tell us about the mission since they are the most secretive and cryptic motherfuckers on this planet. Although, I doubt this has anything to do with Ozpin and his cold war with Salem because that would be too direct. It was most likely a mission where we go somewhere and deal with the Grimm that threaten a local village.

It took close to ten minutes before the rest of Team ORNJ and the entirety of Team CFVY to arrive. The elevator door opened and Anna and I were greeted with Oliver immediately eyeing Anna and I.

"What did you two do?" Oliver said in stern tone.

However, there was something about in his eye that didn't match the attitude he was trying to give off.

"It- we didn't do anything." Anna defended, with her hands up.

I huffed in amusement. "You should work on your facial expressions, you're not really convincing."

Oliver let out a sigh. "Worth a try."

"Now that you are all here, I can inform you on your first assignment as students of Beacon Academy." The headmaster stated. "Five years ago, the settlement of Sunset Coast was overrun by Grimm after a breach in the wall but thankfully the town was evacuated in time to avoid a massacre like Mountain Glenn. Recently, the concentration of Grimm near the area has been reduced significantly and the council wants me to send people to clear out the remaining Grimm to pave the way for resettlement."

"Normally, for first years missions would be assigned on weekends or breaks for the first semester but since this is the council we're dealing with, I have to make an exception." Ozpin said, mild distaste in his voice at the end. "So, you will be heading out to Sunset Coast tomorrow with Professor Wednesday."

"We will go around the town clearing out Grimm and reactivating the town's power grid before the arrival of security teams and work crews. Try not to damage the buildings too much, this resettlement is already going to cost a fortune and I doubt the council would appreciate you dropping a building to kill a Grimm." Wednesday explained. "We'll leave Beacon at five in the morning as to get to Sunset Coast by seven."

"Five A.M?" Coco asked, bewildered.

"Yes five A.M, Miss Adel." Wednesday reiterated. "We will have a very long few days ahead of us. With any luck we'll be back at Beacon within the week so I would pack extra clothes."

"If there is nothing else, we'll take our leave." Anna said.

We quickly made our way back to our dorms to start getting ready but before going to the dorms we picked up our weapons from the locker room. Once I got back to my dorm I rummaged through my suitcase for any useful supplies. As I looked under my bed for my suitcase, I found a new bag that was next to it. I pulled in out and saw it was a backpack and inside was an assortment of dehydrated foods and lighter snacks, some bottles of water, a magnesium bar fire starter and a compass. The last two items were things I was familiar with from the times I have gone camping and used those items. I quickly packed my clothing and my sleeping bag in to the back pack after I took the hat out and placed it on my bed. Once I had my bag packed, I put it against my bed with my gun belt and weapons resting on top of it. Knowing that we had to leave Beacon by five, I set an alarm on my scroll for four in the morning and decided that I should get to sleep early.

* * *

Waking up before the sun was up has always been a hassle for me, even if my body knew I needed to get up and with an alarm. I slowly rolled out of bed after turning off my alarm, then made my way to the kitchen in order to make some coffee to wake my ass up. Once I got the coffee brewing, I grabbed my combat clothes and got dressed, electing to forgo the shower for now. After I changed, I helped the other get up with Nikita being the most difficult to get out of bed, I damn near wanted to push her out of bed. While everyone was getting ready, I got a cup of coffee and double checked my stuff to make sure I had everything and I knew where everything was. Once I was finished with that, I checked the time to see that it was 4:26 and began to put on my gun belt. I then sat at my desk and began to clean my weapons with supplies I bought while I was in Vale about a week or two ago. When I had finished, I made sure to pack the cleaning supplies too.

After a while, Oliver opened the door and let Team CFVY in after there was a knock on the door. Poor Coco looked like she had just woken up after only getting an hour or so of sleep, Fox seemed mostly awake, Velvet was half asleep too but Yatsuhashi was perfectly fine. However, only Yatsuhashi had a backpack on and it seemed like it was carrying all his team's stuff but knowing him, he probably asked to.

"Sorry we're a bit late but not all of us are morning people." Coco explained sluggishly.

"We still got about twenty-five minutes, so its all good." I replied before letting out a yawn.

"Are you guys ready?" Velvet spoke.

"Yeah." Anna said as she emerged from the bathroom changed into her combat attire.

"Then, let's get going." Oliver said as he sheathed his weapon and picked up his pack.

We all gathered our stuff and followed the other four students through the halls of the dormitory. It was odd to be walking around the campus this early in the morning as it was dead silent with the exception of our footsteps and the occasional bird call. Another thing that I'd never really seen was how different the academy looks with very little light, it almost looks like the home to a vampire. It didn't take us too long to reach the landing pads and found a Bullhead idling and Wednesday waiting patiently with his staff in one hand and a pocket watch in the other. There was an oddly familiar chime coming from the pocket watch that was barely audible but before I had any more time to listen to the chime, Wednesday saw us and closed the watch.

"Ah, you are earlier than I thought you would be." Wednesday greeted. "Although, some of you seem worse for wear."

"I'll be fine when I get more sleep." Coco muttered.

"I'm sorry to drag you out of bed this early but you'll have the time to get plenty of time to sleep, Sunset Coast is a two hour flight away." Wednesday replied as he started to walk towards the Bullhead.

The rest of us followed suit and took our seats in the Bullhead. Wednesday sat in the copilot seat, Team CFVY sat on one side of the airship and my team sat on the other. Coco, Velvet and Nikita immediately went to sleep the second they sat down and I thought about doing the same but I was already too awake. In the meantime I decided to read through news articles while we still were in range of the CCT and the major headline is about how the Schnee Dust Company plans to secure its mines and refineries near Vale in light of 'increased lawlessness'. Jacques Schnee feels that these outlaw gangs especially the ones kicked out of Vacuo, who have started to call themselves 'The Exodus', are likely to rob "the good, hard working people of Vale". Like he actually gave a shit about the people of Vale, that was all business lingo saying they're going to rob his company which caused me to scoff before closing my scroll.

 _The calm lush forest had long been replaced with a fire storm that continued to destroy everything that it touched and the burning sensation in my lungs was still there. I was still able to stay ahead of the inferno but I could feel the heat getting to close for comfort. The crackling of the flames was deafening now as they trailed close behind me. Looking up in front of me, I saw that red horse that was on fire again but this time it had a cloaked figure sitting on top of it with a sword in the rider's hand. The horse reared on it hind legs as it neighed louder than the crackling of the fire and was followed with the sound of thunder._

Slowly my eyes fluttered open upon realizing that I had fallen asleep. Taking a look around, I noticed that Coco and Nikita were still out cold, Velvet and Yatsuhashi were talking amongst themselves, Fox was sharpening his blades, Anna looked to be daydreaming and Oliver was reading something on his scroll. I rolled my neck, earning two satisfying pops as I did so, before I checked the time on my scroll.

"6:42. Shit." I mumbled to myself as I rubbed my eyes.

As I swore under my breath, Wednesday had gotten up from the copilot's seat and walked over to us.

"Alright." Wednesday's voice broke the long standing silence and woke Coco and Nikita up. "We're almost at Sunset Coast. We're going to scavenge the stores close to where we are landing for supplies before we begin sweeping the town for Grimm. Now, the Grimm should consist of Beowolves and Ursa and hopefully not too many of them but be ready for anything but we might not be able to get any supplies in so make your shots count."

I made sure to make a mental note of that. Even though my weapons has a melee component to it, it relies on Dust to enhance my attacks to do some real damage. Once I made sure to commit that information to memory, I felt the airship descending and beginning to slow down. Before long, the airship jolted as the landing gear hit the ground and the doors slowly opened. My eyes closed as the harsh sunlight filled the hold as everyone began to disembark but I opened them after a moment. I reached for my bag and made my way off of the airship, thankfully without being off balance and landing face first to the ground.

The town around us was very similar to Vale with the major distinction being that the tallest building here had to be close to ten stories. The town also stretched for a couple miles around and was protected by a wall that circumnavigated the town except for the coast line. The town gave me a vibe similar to Carlsbad in California with it being right on the beach. The town's deserted status showed through the light overgrowth that had begun to sprout, the broken windows, abandoned cars and the disconcerting quiet aside from the engine of the Bullhead. We currently on the rooftop of a building that had a landing pad where the Bullhead was waiting as Wednesday disembarked. After the professor stepped on to the landing pad, the airship quickly took off and disappeared into the distance.

"Okay, we currently at the police department building near the center of town. We'll be going street to street looking for Grimm all together. When night comes, we will find a building to hold up in for the night." Wednesday reported.

"Jakob, you and Fox got point." Oliver stated to which I nodded. "Nikita and I will watch our backs."

With that said, Fox and I made our way over to the access door and I entered first with my hand gun in my right hand. There was a flight of stairs that led down which led to another security door but it was thankfully still cracked open. Opening the metal door, I entered a room with cubicles and files and papers littered all over the place telling me that people left in hurry and took only the important documents. The lighting was limited as most of the light bulbs in the ceiling had burnt out after being left on for years. The area looked like the good setting for a horror movie scene as there was hardly any noises beyond our calculated steps.

Quickly remembering that I hadn't activated my aura, I took a moment to do so that way I wouldn't be blindsided later. Moving slowly, Fox and I scanned the room for any sign of Grimm in the room. There wasn't any visible clues that gave away that Grimm had been in this building anytime recently which allowed me to relax a bit. I didn't realize how tense my muscles were until I let out a breath as I let my body relax.

There was two doors that led to other places in the building, one was a mostly glass door directly in front of us with the other door being a metal door to our right. Fox motioned for me to take the door on the right while he went for the other. Moving slowly and methodically, I approached the metal door and carefully opened it with my left hand while my right hand held my weapon at the ready. The room I entered was the holding room and I was immediately assaulted by an odor so foul, I nearly threw up on the spot. The all to familiar smell of iron and an unfamiliar smell over took my senses and I quickly put my left a hand to my nose in a desperate attempt to block the odor.

Scanning the room I recognized it as a holding room with easily ten cells with five on each side of the room. The lights in the room had all burnt out except for one near the middle of the room. At the end of the hallway I was facing, near the last holding cell was a large smear of faded rust that lead into the cell. Given by the fact it was a rust color, I could tell that it happened a while ago and most likely the origin of the unholy smell that lingered in the room. I quickly back out of the door way and closed the door behind me. I took a moment to recollect myself and convince my body not to blow chunks at the moment.

"Are you alright?" The concerned voice of my fellow Faunus called out.

"Yeah. Just... don't go in there." I said motioning to the door behind me. "It's not pretty and reeks to high hell."

"Body?" Wednesday asks solemnly.

"Probably whats left of one." I replied as I walked away from the door.

I made my way over to the room Fox had gone into which was a waiting room with a front desk. This time, the room was only illuminated by the sunlight that was coming in through the glass doors which were broken out. Fox had exited through the smashed out doors and into the streets and I quickly followed suit. Squinting my eyes against the cruel sunlight, I walked out onto the empty street. The most haunting thing was for a split second I thought that I could hear the sounds of people talking and cars passing by as if the town was still inhabited. It was most likely my imagination combined with the fact I was still half asleep but that didn't make it any less creepy.

Snapping myself from that line of thought, my eyes scrutinized the entire street in the search for signs of Grimm activity. Still, I could find nothing conclusive and they certainly weren't just roaming the streets otherwise we would have seen them already. I followed behind Fox as we walked down the street with him on one side and me on the other with both of my weapons drawn. As we made our way down the road I couldn't help but feel like something was watching us. Looking around, I found nothing on the street besides our group of nine nor anything in the storefronts that we passed. As my eyes snapped to the rooftops, I saw the silhouette of a wolf that was walking parallel to us.

I whistled to grab everyone's attention before motioning to the Grimm that was following us with my revolver. Anna quickly dropped to one knee, pulled out her rifle and fired a shot that connected with the creature's head and it fell off the roof behind Fox. Just as it hit the ground, I activated my semblance feeling something approaching on my left and aimed my other weapon in that direction to see the red eyes of a Grimm charging at me through a small shop. I made sure the sights were lined up right in the middle of the Grimm's eyes and fired a shot. When that didn't drop the Grimm I quickly exited my semblance and dropped to a kneeling position and let the Grimm jump over me. From my position, I reactivated my semblance and fired three shots into the Beowolf's side as it skid across the asphalt and it slid to a stop.

' _Thank god for this semblance._ ' I though to myself as I got back onto my feet.

Of course, there was no time to relax as a small pack of Beowolves slowly stalked onto the street in front of us as well as behind us. With the group of Beowolves ahead of us, was an Alpha Beowolf and its slowly crept towards us. Oliver, Fox, Anna and myself prepare to fight the Grimm ahead of us while the rest focused on the Grimm behind us. Oliver had his weapon in sword mode and moved up to Fox and I while Anna hung back and readied her rifle. Knowing I was already down four bullets, I switched my weapons into their melee configuration and got into a boxing stance.

"Jakob, go left. Fox, go right. I'll take the middle and Anna, you take anyone who doesn't want to play along." Oliver ordered.

Fox took off towards the Grimm and after taking a breath to ready myself I did the same. As I approached the first Beowolf, I stopped running and cocked my fist back for a right hook. The Grimm also reared it's claws back ready to swipe at me just as an idea popped into my head. Using my semblance, I made sure my punch would land way before it had a chance to attack me and I punched the Grimm straight in the snout. I could see the shockwave of the attack ripple throughout its body before time resumed and the Grimm was sent flying back, colliding with two other Beowolves knocking them all to the floor. Quickly switching targets to a charging Beowolf and as it came at me on all fours, I repeated my tactic only this time I punched down on the Grimm's head forcing it to the ground. Once I had exited from my semblance I noticed that the rest of the Grimm where still at a distance from me so I switched my weapons back and began firing at them.

After four bullets left my weapons, I saw a Beowolf charging on my left and swapped my left weapon into its melee form as it attacked me. The Grimm had bit at my hand but thanks to the weapon it's teeth remained away from my skin and the two of us fell onto the floor. The beast had not intentions of letting go of my hand and began to violently twist its head to remove my weapon from my wrist. Quickly, I brought my other weapon to the Grimm's neck and fired the two remaining shots into it and it howled, letting go of my hand. I then shifted my other weapon into its gun form and put the Beowolf down for good with two more shots to its unprotected neck.

I pushed the rapidly decaying beast off of me and leveled my weapons at the Alpha Beowolf which was slowly approaching an unaware Fox. Two clicks told me that my weapons were empty, and I quickly holstered them and drew the other two and fired two shots to get the larger Grimm's attention. Upon seeing the Grimm turn towards me and cock its head at me I knew I didn't make a wise decision and even it knew that. Swallowing a lump in my throat I didn't know was there, I used my semblance again to fire shots at the unarmored parts of the creature. However, this time these rounds were Ice Dust rounds that slowed the beast but did not freeze it in place. As it slowly moved towards me, Anna had begun to shoot at the Grimm hitting it in the side twice causing it to jerk from the impacts. The final round fired by the redhead stuck the Grimm clean in the eye and it slowly fell over onto its side and began to fade away.

Taking a moment to look around, I saw that there were two more Beowolves moving in to attack. Using my semblance once more, I aimed my weapons at the one on the left and fired two shots that struck it's head dropping it. As I transitioned to the final Grimm, I could see a bullet mid air making its way towards the Beowolf. When time resumed its normal pace, the round connected with its target and the Grimm feel to the ground and slid past me. Turning to watch the Grimm pass me, I noticed Anna had a satisfied grin adorning her face. I gave her a salute to thank her for helping me out and she responded with a salute of her own. I then saw Oliver pushing a dead Beowolf off of his sword before sheathing his weapon and upon further inspection it seemed that everyone else had dealt with the Grimm.

"Well, that's quite the welcoming party." Coco scoffed.

"Yes, very friendly people." Oliver quipped.

"Well, students. Let's continue." Wednesday stated as he continued on.

* * *

Morning slowly drifted into evening as we went street by street destroying any Grimm we saw for hours until the sun was on the horizon to the west. By now, we were beyond hungry and had agreed to hold up in an old hotel lobby to take some time to rest and eat, maybe sleep in for the night. We had cleared the four story building and found no Grimm residing here. I scrambled through my bag to find two granola bars and an MRE of spaghetti and scarfed down the food to keep my stomach from eating itself and once I made my food disappear, I took a bottle of water and drank from that. Once I had done that, I leaned back against the wall that I was sitting against and closed my eyes in an attempt to rest for a while. After a minute or two of resting my eyes, I opened my eyes when I heard someone sit down to my right and saw that it was Anna.

"How are you holding up?" I asked.

"I'm good for the moment, just never fought this early in the morning before."

I huffed lightly. "First time for everything."

"What about you, Jakob? You look a little ragged."

"I'm not use to fighting for a couple hours at a time."

"All things considered, you're holding your own pretty well."

I felt my lips form into a small smile. "Thanks, Anna."

"Break time's over!" Oliver yelled before shots were heard.

I quickly got to my feet and drew my weapons and ran towards the exit to the lobby. Oliver and Yatsuhashi were dealing with Grimm that had begun to flood into the building with Oliver fighting a Beowolf and Yatsuhashi finishing off an Ursa. I began to fire at the other Grimm that stormed through the doorway. The others soon joined me in trying to hold back the Grimm that had begun swarming into the building.

"Everyone down!" Coco screamed, as I heard her weapon shift forms.

All of us quickly dropped to the floor or dove out of the way just before a wall of bullets came flying towards the Grimm. I couldn't see but judging by the volume of fire and the sounds of Grimm howling in pain I could tell it wasn't going good for the Grimm. The stream of Dust rounds continued for a couple of seconds until a final howl of a dying Grimm was heard and the bullets ceased flying. Quickly we got back to out feet, ready to fight any more Grimm that still lingered but looking around I found none. Looking back over to Coco, the barrels of her minigun had a light red hue to them and had smoke coming off of them. Coco brought the weapon up and blew the smoke from the barrels; gloating.

"Show off." I mumbled only to be met with a smirk from the fashionista.

"We still have some Grimm in the street." Oliver stated.

I cocked my weapons and walked over to the door where Oliver was peeking out of the broken glass. After a head nod, the two of us opened what remained of the door and Oliver went left while I went right. Immediately in front of me was a Beowolf that I instantly put two bullets center mass then put on in its chin as howled in pain and it fell onto its back. Seeing two more rushing me, I switched weapon forms and when they got into punching distance I activated my semblance again and hit one with an upper cut. As I turned to face the other beast, time began to pick up pace and knowing I was in danger I began to move myself out of the way. As I went to dive out of the way, the Grimm swiped me to the side and I hit the floor. While on the ground, I watched as a dark gray shimmer wash over my body. I quickly swapped my weapon modes again and fired the remaining shots into the beast.

It began to limp as it was badly wounded from my flurry of bullets. I slowly pushed myself back onto my feet, ignoring the aching of my body and holstered one pair of weapons and drew the other as I walked over to the wounded Grimm. I kicked it on to it's side, before putting two shots into its neck and the Beowolf stopped moving. Surveying the area, there wasn't any Grimm left standing so I felt safe enough to pull out my scroll to check my Aura levels. Just as I thought, mine was completely empty while Oliver's was at thirty-two, Anna's was at forty-seven and Nikita's was thirty-five. I'm certain that my semblance has to drain my Aura pretty fast considering I had been hit only a couple of times before.

"Well, this has been a fun day so far." I quipped.

"I think we can call it at day." Oliver stated.

Coco checked her scroll, most likely checking the team's Aura levels. "Agreed."

"Anna." Oliver called out, grabbing the sharpshooter's attention. "You take first watch for two hours, then me, then Fox, then Velvet, then Coco, then Jakob will have the final watch."

"Qui. I recommend that we barricade the doors to be safe." Anna reasoned.

"Yeah, there isn't much in the way of doors there anymore." I added, pointing over to the broken glass.

Oliver walked over to me. "Jakob, help me move these couches while everyone else settles in."

I nodded before walking over to the nearest piece of furniture and with Oliver's help moved it in front of the broken doors. We then moved a few more couches over o make sure that the doors couldn't be pushed from the outside. I'm certain this would just be more work tomorrow but it could prove useful in the event of another wave of Grimm. Once finished, I went back to where I had been resting before and pulled the sleeping bag out of my pack and laid it out. I took of my gun belt, set it on top of my pack before taking off my boots, crawling into my sleeping bag and letting my heavy eyelids shut once more.


	10. Chapter 10: Out of the Frying Pan

Chapter 10: Out of The Frying Pan

* * *

The sudden jolt of something kicking my foot woke me up in a panic. Quickly seeing that Coco was standing in front of me, it was safe to assume that she had kicked my foot. I let out a sigh before I began to get out of my sleeping bag while Coco walked off. I quickly put on my boots and my gun belt then checked my scroll to see it was 3:56 AM and then I checked my Aura level which was at ninty-two. I walked over to the front of the lobby and sat down in a chair that was watching the pile of couches that blocked the doors. I rubbed the sleepiness from my eyes before letting out a yawn. Since I had time to kill, I had absent mindlessly began to spin my right revolver while I kept an eye on the doors. I could smell the familiar scent of fresh rain and I could hear the light patter of rain.

Minutes of sitting around passed so slowly that I nearly doze off a few times with the sounds of roaming Grimm keeping me awake. While I didn't see any Grimm, I sure as hell heard the sound of claws clacking against the asphalt around us. Guessing from the sounds, I'm willing to bet it had to be a pack of Ursa since they were heavier sounds. I'm also pretty sure that we had killed most of the Beowolves in the town since that was the majority of the Grimm we came across. I doubt it was a Death Stalker since the clacking wasn't loud enough to drown out the soft patter of rain.

"You always seem to be lost in your thoughts." Coco broke me from my inner monologue.

I huffed. "Seems to happen a lot." I then turned to face her with a cocked eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to be asleep?"

She simply shrugged her shoulders. "Couldn't get back to sleep."

I turned my head to watch the doors again. "You should keep trying, you going to need the rest."

"I'll be fine." Coco dismissed with a wave of her hand.

"You can't fight effectively with six hours of sleep."

"I can handle myself."

"Hope so." I resigned.

"I appreciate the concern, cowboy." Coco said as she placed a hand on my shoulder. "My Aura is back to one hundred anyways."

"Yeah, but sleep is important too." I added.

"Agreed, but my mind wont let me go back to sleep."

"I know that feeling."

A silence soon fell between us with the exception of the rainfall outside. My gaze remained fixated on the barricaded doors on the off chance the Grimm decided to come barreling in like before.

"How about you?"

I tilted my head to look at the fashionista. "How about me what?"

"How are holding up?"

I took a second to evaluate myself, while I was sore form being slapped around by Grimm yesterday I did feel alright for the most part. "Fine. Little sore but I'll live."

Another few minutes of silence came to pass as the sky had slowly become lighter but where still dark from the storm clouds overhead. The clouds were still a dark gray but the faint light of the distant sun had blanketed the sky. The scent of fresh rain and its soft patter had an oddly soothing effect on me and honestly made me think of home during the monsoon season. I let out a light yet content sigh as I thought back to those rainy August mornings I would wake up to that was a fresh breath from the scorching summer heat.

Moving on from the memories of home, I could have sworn I heard a noise from floor or two above us. I was of mind to not think much of it until the sound of something breaking could be heard. I snapped my head in the direction of the sound, but out of my peripheral I could see Coco had not noticed it. I clicked my tongue to get her attention before pointing up.

"I heard something, I'll check it out, keep watch down here."

"Wouldn't it be smarter if I come with you?" Coco reasoned.

"Maybe." I said as I got out of my seat. "Although, somebody has to watch the doors and I don't want to wake people if its a cat or some shit."

"Fair point. Just do anything too stupid."

"Hey, if its a Grimm then the gunshots should be enough to wake people." I added as I made my way deeper into the hotel lobby, in search of the stairs.

I eventually found the emergency staircase and as I went up them, I made sure every step was carefully taken as to not make too much noise. The trouble was the steps where made out of concrete and the enclosed space of the stairwell made each step echo throughout the stairwell. As I reached the second floor, I slowly pulled the hammer on my right 1851 making sure I heard all four clicks that told me the weapon was fully cocked. I used my left hand to open the door while I had my weapon at the ready in case I saw any Grimm. I moved slowly and methodically as I went room to room looking for what had caused the breaking sound. With the aid of night vision from being a Faunus, I could make out most objects and could tell that there wasn't a Grimm hiding in the shadows. From the strewn luggage bags and opened suitcases littering the floors, it was obvious that the hotel was evacuated in a hurry. While we were told that the majority of the inhabitants were evacuated, you could tell they had to do it quick fast and in a hurry; probably a 'women and children first' scenario.

The faint sound of the floor creaking had caught my attention and I snapped my head in the direction it came from. It seemed to have come from one of the rooms down the hallway on the right. I crept forth with my weapon trained on the door just in case what ever made the noise decided to jump out at me when I got close. As I got to the door which was cracked open, I slowly opened it and observed the room carefully making sure I didn't overlook anything. Just as I went to step into the room I heard another creak this time it came from right behind me and quickly turned around. I had come eye to eye with a pair of red eyes, but just like in initiation it was Anna's.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" I exclaimed, quick to remove my finger from the trigger and point my revolver at the floor. "Are you trying to give me a fucking heart attack."

"I-I don't mean too." Anna defended, making me cringe for snapping at her.

"I'm sorry, I just got startled. Anyways if anyone trying to kill me it _has_ to be Nikita." I joked, inciting a light laugh from my partner. "But seriously, we have to stop meeting like this."

"Qui, I fear you might accidentally shoot me the next time."

"Well, good thing I have great reaction time." I quipped as I made my way to the stairs followed by Anna. "What are you doing awake at this hour anyways?"

"I'm a bit of a light sleeper."

"Well, I'm sorry if my snoring has ever woken you."

Once I had exited the stairwell, I noticed that Coco had sat down in the seat and was watching the door.

"I can watch the door for you two."

"What are you implying there, partner?" I asked with a raised brow.

"I don't mean anything lewd." Anna explained. "You still need more rest and Coco was just on watch."

"Well, that's kind of you but you already had watch. You go back to sleep and I'll try to get Coco to do the same."

* * *

When the brain is tired and doing the same thing for hours it tends to lose track of time and everything happens in a blur. It seemed like I blinked while I was walking over to Coco to try to get her to sleep and then I was in the middle of a fight with an Ursa in the middle of the street midday. The beast had swiped its claw at me and I went through a store front which had brought my mind back into focus. I quickly pushed myself back onto my feet and fired off some shots at the demonic bear which only seemed to piss it off. At least it was pissed off until a hard-light copy of Yatsu's weapon, Fulcrum, removed its head from its neck and the thing slowly deteriorated. I hunched over and placed my hands on my knees as I tried to regain my breath.

"Thanks, Velvet." I rasped out.

"H-happy to help." Velvet squeaked out.

I straightened my back out and cracked my neck before exited the store front. "Really need to stop getting yourself slapped around." I scolded myself.

"Oh, Jakob. C-can I get a picture of your weapons?" Velvet asked as she pulled out her camera.

I almost forgot that her weapon, Anesidora, made the copies of weapons from the pictures stored on the camera. I quickly drew my Schofields and held them up so she could get a good picture.

The camera flashed and Velvet gave me a small smile before joining the fight.

Walking out of the building, I saw two Beowolves charging me and aimed my weapons but never got a chance to shoot as a hail of bullets tore them to shreds. I looked over to see the minigun wielding leader of Team CFVY who bore a smirk and transformed her weapon, Gianduja, back into its handbag form.

"Bit of overkill, don't ya think."

"Better than not killing it." Coco quipped.

"Quality over quantity." I got out as I noticed a Grimm leaping off of the roof and towards us.

My instincts had activated my semblance and I lined up the shot and slowly squeezed the trigger until the weapon bucked in my hand. The bullet soared through the air and slammed into the Grimm's head and the beast fell to the floor just behind Coco. She turned to see the dissolving Beowolf behind her and turned back to face me and the smirk that I had on my face was a way to tell her I told you so.

"I think that's the last of that pack." Wednesday called out. "With the Grimm continuously attacking us, we should be done within two days."

I mentally groaned. ' _Two days, I don't know if I can handle fighting Grimm for two days straight._ '

I took the time to take a deep breath to try and prepare myself for the days ahead. The sound of someone's scroll going off rang through the air and Wednesday went to his pocket to retrieve his device.

"Yes, Oz." Wednesday greeted, plainly.

"Yes, were on Verde Street at the moment." There was a pause as he listened to what Ozpin was saying.

"Things are going smoothly so far. The Grimm presence here is lighter than we first thought, almost a little bit too thin." Another brief pause followed. "Most likely just left along side the other Grimm."

I had begun to turn out Wednesday's conversation with Ozpin as I let myself have a moment to breathe. I could feel that there was a slight burn in my lungs from all of the activity I've been through in the past few hours. It wasn't anything too debilitating and I knew after a minute I'd be alright and ready to continue fighting.

"Great." I heard Wednesday said sarcastically. "Well, at least this time they'll be ready for it but its still risky."

' _I want to ask what he's talking but I fear that I already know._ ' I thought as I let my head hang low.

"Alright." The one eyed professor called out as he put his scroll away. "According to some news from the headmaster is that the Siren that you guys face during your initiation may be in the area."

' _Called it._ '

"Ozpin kept tabs on it shortly after initiation to make sure it didn't attack any towns but he lost it about three days into the school year. If it's here, we can kill two birds with one stone." The professor explained.

"Are you sure we should be fighting it?" Anna reasoned. "We didn't fair well against it the last time."

Wednesday nodded. "This is true but you won't be ambushed by it and know how to beat it this time."

I took a quick inventory of my ammo and realized that I had close to several dozen rounds left which meant I was going to be up shits-creek with out a paddle. We were probably going up against an elite and more dangerous Grimm in addition to the cannon fodder Grimm that was still in the city which meant I would need more ammo than I currently have if I wanted to be useful in anything other than close engagements. Even then, I'm still not entirely comfortable with the melee components of my weapons let alone fighting against a Grimm that had nearly been responsible for my death.

Either way, _fun_ times were ahead.

"With all due respect Professor, even if we know it could be in the area that doesn't mean that we have the advantage. For all we know it could be ghosting us right now." Oliver explained.

"I agree." Nikita interjected. "If the Siren is here, it may already know that we are here and it could be waiting for a more opportune moment to strike."

"You guys are worrying too much." Coco dismissed with a wave of her hand. "Sure, we got the raw end of the deal in the last fight but we know how to fight it now. Also, I have more than enough bullets to deal with it than at initiation."

Yatsuhashi as well as Velvet nodded in agreement with the fashionista while Fox seemed to agree with Oliver and Nikita. So far the only two to not say anything was myself and Fox, although Fox seemed to be listening to both forming factions on this issue. For me I was too busy with a nagging feeling that today was about to get a whole lot more interesting and I needed more ammo if I wanted to be useful.

"Here's what we'll do." Wednesday spoke. "We'll continue and if we come across it before nightfall we'll fight it. In the mean time, think about it and take this seriously. I won't fault you if you do not wish to." He finished with sending a glance my way.

' _Asshole._ '

* * *

 _I found myself in the middle of a vast and endless burnt out forest with nothing but charred trunks and blackened ground. A large wildfire had came and went and destroyed nearly everything in its path. There wasn't any sounds of wildlife nearby and the only noise I heard was the loud crunching of the burnt and dead grass underneath my boots. As I walked, something to my left had caught my eye and I decided to get a closer look. The speck of green was visible from a mile since it was such a stark contrast to the black burnt forest. As I got closer I could make out it was a flower bud was sprouting out of the dead forest floor, still covered in ashes. In the distance I heard the neigh of a horse followed by the crack of thunder. Looking behind me I saw that horse with the mane of fire again. Horse on fire, the sound of thunder?_

* * *

My eyes flickered open to be greeted by the dark room and the sleeping forms of my fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses in training. However, my mind had went back to the last moment in my dream about the horse and as I thought on it a mild headache came and went and one word ran through my mind. War. War and the sound of thunder, I recognized why those two seemed to go together beyond it being a gunshot not thunder: Revelations and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Was that how bad things were about to get, was this war between Salem and Ozpin going to reach near apocalyptic levels? That would explain War showing up in my dreams and the whole forest was burnt down. Although, why these dreams were more symbolic than something like my lost memories bleeding into my subconscious was a mystery. One things for sure, was that I really needed to stop Salem and her underlings at any cost and with any means necessary. I lightly shook my head to clear my mind and closed my eyes.

A few seconds after my eyelids closed, I heard the faint sound of metal scraping. I shot up and reached around for my weapons knowing that something was in the building. We had set up back in the hotel since the Grimm were mainly on the other side of town and we had backtracked. Looking around, I saw that Velvet was also up and looking around.

"You heard it too?" I asked in a whisper.

She nodded before she grabbed her weapon and put her pieces of amour back on.

I slowly got out of my sleeping back and put my boots back on as well as my belt and drew my pair of Schofields. Once I was ready I walked over to where Anna was sleeping and nudged her leg with my foot while I watched my surroundings.

"Shits getting serious." I said before she rolled over and grabbed her rifle, Sainte Emuete.

I did the same with Oliver and Nikita while Velvet got Coco and Fox awake and then told Yatsuhashi who was on watch. The eight of us were now awake and ready for action as there was another sound of metal being scraped which irritated me as it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I had a good idea what was in the building and with only a fourth of us being able to see in the dark we were at a disadvantage. I'm assuming for the others that it was near pitch black which meant that the Siren could see them before they even knew where it was.

"Okay, here's our plan." Oliver stated grabbing our attention. "We can't fight in the dark and sunrise isn't for another six hours, so we need to turn on the power. Jakob or Velvet, one of you two will have to do that since we can hardly see."

I inhaled and exhaled a long breath. "I'll do it."

"Okay, someone should still go with you since we don't know if there are more Grimm."

"Coco, you should go since without adequate light your weapon would be incredibly inaccurate and you would be a liability." Nikita assessed.

"Wow, thanks for the complement." Coco deadpanned. "Shouldn't Velvet go since she can also see in the dark?"

"No. We need her to be our eyes and ears so we have an idea of where it is." Oliver explained. "And Coco you're the best candidate to go with him. If you're firing wildly or blindly you could hit a load-bearing pillar or wall and bring part of the building down on us."

"If Nikita uses her electricity then I'll be able to see what I'm shooting at." Coco declared.

I sighed in frustration knowing we were on a time table and began to walk towards the staircase alone going off knowledge that the generators were usually kept in the basement. I quickly descended the stairs and made it to the bottom most floor and began to search for any sign of electrical that could lead to the generators. There was mainly large metal pipes or varying colors and valves all over the place so I think I'm on the wrong floor. I then went back up a floor and began to search there. I found smaller metal pipping that could have been electrical so I began to follow them. I heard the sounds of combat a few floors above me so I began to run knowing time was running short.

As I followed the pipes, I heard a sound that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up: the rattling of a rattlesnake. I frantically looked around for where it was but I couldn't find it. By now I was completely frozen as I had a deathly fear of snakes since I never could tell which ones were venomous but I knew for certain rattlers were. I let out a shaky breath before continuing to run alongside the pipping hoping that it led to the generators, knowing my friends were in danger. As I reached the end of the hallway I found a large machine that was squared off by chain link fencing. I hurriedly opened the door and looked over the machine frantically for any sign of how it works or what it is. I found a plaque next to a switch that explained that it was a power generator. I flipped the switch and I heard the machine kick to life and a low electrical hum sounded and lights began to flicker on. Just as I let out a sigh of relief something wrapped around my waist and threw me back several feet. I quickly got back on to my feet and activated my Aura knowing it was going to be a fight. I looked around and as the lights came on I saw what looked like a younger and smaller King Taijtu but still close to ten feet long except it had close to seven or eight heads. It had a pattern on it similar to that of a Diamondback but with black, red and yellow instead of its brown colors. Of course it was a snake Grimm, fate just has a cruel sense of humor.

I laughed nervously. "Would you look at the time, I should get going can we pick this up... never?"

The Grimm watched me intently as I began to take steps backwards but made no moves towards me, instead it slithered towards one of the pipes on the wall and with a swift swipe of its tail it cut it clearly in half even with end of the tail which wasn't edged. The lights quickly dissipated until it was a dim flicker coming from the light bulbs which made this look more like something out of a horror movie. Drawing my Schofields, I got ready for a fight with this beast knowing that I didn't have an opportunity to run since it had used its tail to throw me before. The Grimm slithered towards me and the middle head hissed at me shortly followed by the other ones.

I swallowed hard. "I-I take that as a 'no'."

Using my semblance, shot at the middle head with two bullets and the creature recoiled violently. The middle head detached and evaporated but the empty neck soon was occupied by two new heads, I should have seen that coming. Before I had a chance to activate my semblance again the Grimm charged me at lightning speed and I was coiled in its tail with my arms immobilized. I tried to wiggle my way out of it's vice like grip only to find it constrict tighter around me. Breathing became difficult and my chest hurt as the life was slowly being squeezed out of me. With my hands still holding my revolvers, I quickly cocked both and fired off two rounds into its tail. The Grimm released me as it hissed in pain and slithered a few feet back. I then used my semblance to ensure that I had enough time to shoot at the heads with one bullet for each one. As I got the the last one, the gun made a click when the hammer fell which meant I was out of bullets. My semblance ended and the Grimm hissed violently again as its heads began to dissipate, however only a few of the heads came back. The Grimm looked back at me and the middle head reared its head back and spit at me. I raised my left hand in reflex and spit hit my gloved hand.

When I lowered my hand the Grimm was no where to be found but I had bigger issues as I felt a stinging sensation on the back of my hand. Looking at it, the spit was bubbling and the glove was smocking lightly. I quickly dropped my weapon to ripped the glove off of my hand and observed my hand to make sure it was okay. The skin was slightly red and stung but it had not done too much damage. As I leaned down to pick up my weapon I noticed parts of it were dissolving which meant that the Grimm had spit acid at me. Looking back at my weapon, it had stopped smoking and it had some of the frame, cylinder and the handle melted. I pulled the other glove off my hand and used it to pick up the weapon to place it back into my holster.

"Well, fuck." I muttered before running back to the rest of my team.

Now I was down to three weapons and still up shits-creek as there was still a Siren left to deal with. I started to run back towards the stairs when that rattling kicked back up and caused me to stop and look for the source hoping it was an actual Diamondback. Of course Murphy hardly throws me a bone and it was the Hydra Grimm yet again. It was right in the middle of the hallway, blocking my path and seemed to be challenging me. The fight was still going on upstairs and again I knew that I was on my own for this and even the Grimm seemed to know that since it eyed me almost mockingly. My guess was that this had to be an older Grimm and knew it couldn't win against all of us and waited for one of us to get separated then strike.

Just as it coiled itself to strike at me, I quickly dove to my right to avoid its attack. I scrambled up to my feet and drew my other pair of weapons and fired wildly at the multiheaded snake Grimm. The Grimm weaved and dodged my bullets this time and shot forward at me in an attempt to constrict me again. I tried to move out of the way again but the Hydra was far faster than me and I found myself being coiled by the Grimm this time it coiled tighter around me, pushing all of the air out of my lungs. All I could do now was squirm and let out silent cries for help as I was being strangled to death, there wasn't even enough room for me to move my hands in any form. The Hydra let out a hiss as my vision became more strained and I was trying to get any air into my lungs which were now on fire.

' _Please, God. Don't let me die here._ ' I silently prayed as my vision began to fade.

A hailstorm of bullets came out of nowhere and nearly hit me as they tore into the Hydra. The beast let me go and I fell onto the floor gasping desperately for air. Once air came back into my lungs I entered a violent coughing fit. The continuous gunfire sounded again and the Hydra let out a horrific hissing screech before the area became silent except for my pained breathing followed by the clicking of heels as my savior walked over and helped me to my feet. Once I was standing up, I was met with a gloved hand across the face that nearly put me back on the floor.

"We'll talk about this later, but for now lets get back to the others." Coco scolded as she basically pulled me along.

I didn't have the energy or the inclination to really fight back, seeing how pissed off Coco was. As we walked down the hallway, I heard the fighting upstairs again meaning that the Siren had yet to die.

"I want your honest opinion, can you fight?" Coco turned to ask me.

After a moment to assess myself I could feel my lungs were still burning, my chest and my ribs hurt. "I can still shoot, but I'm in no condition for hand to hand."

We reached the stairs and quickly run up them and made it back the the ground floor an the fight against the Siren was still going on but the Grimm had cracks in its bone 'armor' and had scorch marks and cuts all over it. The Grimm turned to face us but was met with Nikita and Professor Wednesday unleashing large blasts of electricity at the Siren which let out a howl in pain but had held its ground. Yatsuhashi ran at the Grimm while it was still recovering and swung for its head but the Siren brought up a hand to grab Fulcrum mid-swipe and was able push the seven foot man back. The Siren turned it head to face Yatsuhashi who had brought his weapon up to cover his face from the psychic Grimm's gaze. While the Grimm was distracted, Velvet used Anesidora to make a copy of Anna's rifle, Sainte Emeute, and fired a quick secession of rounds behind the Grimm before switching it into its poleaxe mode and charged the Grimm with Fox, both flanking the creature of darkness. Fox dropped to his knees and slid under the Grimm, slicing at its legs with Sharp Retribution while Velvet jumped over the Grimm after hooking the head of the poleaxe under its arm and used the poleaxe to throw the Grimm. Nikita used the Dust stored on her back to aid her electromagnetism semblance and channeled it all in to her Alternating Current Gauntlets and unleashed a large blast into the Grimm sending in through the front doors and out into the street.

I found a turned over couch and leaned against it while Coco ran to join the others. I knew my best bet was to keep my distance and provide support. As the Siren got back up the others jumped on it and I couldn't get a good shot in since I didn't want to shot a friend in the back. However, I felt myself becoming more and more tired and found it a little bit harder to keep my eyelids open.

"Maybe... I should rest... a little bit." I murmured to myself as I let my eyes close.


	11. Chapter 11: Same Day Different Situation

Chapter 11: Same Day Different Situation

* * *

 _I must be dreaming as I was surrounded by saguaros, cholla, dried grass and the occasional bush of the Sonora Desert. The sky was a dark gray and rain could be seen falling on the purple mountains in the distance while a large area of ground around me was still illuminated by the sun. A light breeze also carried the faint smell of rain as it also kicked up some dust and sand with it. Was I really back in Arizona, or is this all a dream or was me being on Remnant a dream? It was hard to discern what was actually real, a dream or some fouled memory of mine. I had plenty of dreams that seemed so real and sometimes I doubt if some events actually happened. Before I could ponder that thought more, I felt my foot getting caught on something but the thing that frightened me was that I hadn't been walking. Looking down I saw a Diamondback Rattlesnake wrapped around my left foot. Another one shot out of the ground and coiled around my other foot. Before I knew it, dozens of snakes shot out of the sand and entangled me and began to drag me down into the ground as if it was quick sand. A final snake had wrapped itself around my throat and I gasped violently for air as I had sunk to my chest in the sand._

* * *

I shot up violently and took in as much air as my lungs could hold and my hands grasped at my chest. Observing my surroundings, I could see that I was still in the lobby of that hotel and my breathing was the loudest sound around me; the fighting must have stopped. Before I knew it, a hand hit me across the face and I ended up facing the floor. Then I was grabbed by the vest and pulled up to meet Coco eye-to-eye. She just had her sunglasses up and a viscous glare that caused me to freeze like a deer in headlights.

"I thought I told you not to do anything stupid." Coco stated.

There was a moment of quiet between us again and I had noticed that I was still sat on the floor and Coco was sitting on my lap. If I wasn't more concerned with being beaten to death by her, I would have reacted to that.

"I... Did we kill it at least." I meekly muttered.

"Oh, its still alive." Coco stated through grit teeth. "Although you're not going to be."

I closed my eyes and braced for the unholy smack down I was about to endure. Seconds passed and nothing happened which caused me to open my eyes only to see Coco was on the verge of laughing. I growled in frustration and pushed the fashionista off of me who proceeded to laugh.

"Hilarious." I drawled.

"Come on, Cowboy." Coco started. "Did you really think I'd be _that_ mad with you?"

I simply pushed myself off the ground and turned to walk away. As I took a single step, Coco had grabbed my hand to stop me from walking away.

"Hey, don't tell me you're actually mad." The leader of Team CFVY stated seriously.

I sighed. "No. More annoyed than anything."

Before I had a chance to even blink, Coco had grabbed each side of my face and placed her lips on mine. Then just as soon as it happened it was over and Coco took a step back with a smirk on her face.

"Better?" She asked.

I was left dumbfounded about what the hell had just happened as Coco's smirk still lingered on her face for a moment.

"But in all seriousness, Cowboy. Don't pull that Lone Ranger bullshit again." Coco scolded before strutting away.

I looked around to get answers from the others but no one seemed to have seen what happened except for Oliver who simply gave me a thumbs up.

* * *

The quiet town of Blackburn was one of the last true frontier towns, large enough to survive Grimm attacks and was growing but lacking most luxuries that larger cities like Vale such as security. Sure it had a good volunteer force to respond to Grimm attacks and several Marshals to keep the peace but lacked natural or artificial barriers to keep the Grimm out. A nice town with each half on one side of the riverbank near the edge of the Emerald Forest, far to the south of Vale. The town earned its name from the area of the forest they settled had been burnt in a forest fire and never regrew. The town also wasn't big enough for cars so most roads in and out of town were dirt paths that hadn't changed since the town was founded. The town wasn't backwater either since it had power, factories and a small airport for small commercial airships. However, the quiet of Blackburn had been disturbed as several strangers rolled into town on horse back. Strangers to the town weren't unheard of since the town had a booming Dust mine and slowly began to industrialize. People didn't really make any notice of these seven riders, figuring them for miners or factory workers.

The person out in front of the group was a man with a black gamblers hat with a white eagle feather in the band, a pair of worn brown leather riding boots, gray trousers, a blue stripped shirt under an old brown duster coat with a black scarf wrapped around his neck that draped to the middle of his stomach. The man had tanned skin from long days out in the harsh Vacuo sun, a scraggly dirty blonde beard with a full mustache that matched his ragged near-brown hair. His eyes were obscured by the shadow cast on his upper face from the morning sun, but their hazel color could barely be seen. Around his waist was a dark green sash under a pistol belt that held a single Remington Model 1875 in a cross draw holster and filled bullet loops. The most recognizable feature on him was his tail which caused him to receive uneasy looks not just because he's a Faunus but because its a rattlesnake tail. Any man who'd been watching the news would recognize this man as one of the head honchos in charge of The Exodus; Haze "Johnny" Clay. Johnny, followed by his cohorts, made their way down the main road going to a specific place and it wasn't the bank. No, Johnny had a more personal reason to be here while his compadres were merely tagging along. Three split off to visit the bar while the other three followed him right to the Marshal's Office.

The person ridding behind him and to the left was his fraternal twin, Ashley Clay. Ashley had hair color matching her namesake and same colored eyes as her brother but lacked the tanned skin due to the wide brim red hat with a large white feather tucked into the black band. She wore black laced boots, a dark gray dress that went to her shins with a white blouse that had puffy shoulders. She also wore a pair of black gloves to cover her hands from the sun as well as prevent her fingerprints from being left behind. Ashley didn't appear to have any weapon visible on her and she could have been easily mistaken for being someone they'd kidnapped. She also is a nice person to most people she walks by on the street but doesn't hold back when she's holding a person or a place up. Ashley scanned the area around for any lawmen in the crowds of people close to the Marshal's Office. The last thing they need is to end up ambushed by more cops that were lingering around. That had happened down in White Rocks which is why there was three more bodies and an extra 150,000 Lien on their heads.

To Ashley's right rode Jeremiah Acero, a sickly man suffering from an illness known as Consumption. Jeremiah's skin had turned a sickly pale and the area of pinkish hue surrounded his pale green eyes. Shoulder length gray hair was left messy since Jeremiah could care less about his looks since his health was in a state of rapid decay. His attire was in similar disarray with a pair of old and battered tan cowboy boots, tattered and faded blue jeans, an over sized black shirt under a gray duster coat. Hanging from his back by a rope string was an old coachgun, littered with dents, scratches and patina from its age and lack of care. He looked like a skeleton in clothing due to the loss of weight his illness brought him and in his hand was a white rag dotted with blood that he'd been coughing up. Most would just look at him with pity for his illness and not in fear for his reputation as a killer. He was also older than the others by twenty years and was almost like an uncle for Ashley and Johnny in their youth. After all one wouldn't expect to be robbed by a sickly old man who runs with young adult criminals.

The final rider approaching the Marshal's Office was a man who looked younger than the others by a couple of years. Rio Yosemite was by far the youngest member of The Exodus; an angry and over confident 'kid' they picked up after the bank robbery in Red Rock. A nervy amateur that had helped them keep the locals under control, Rio was a kid who'd ran from a broken home in search for fame and glory as a wanted man. Rio had dark blue hair that was shaved on the sides and longer at the top and the back, with matching blue eyes, fair skin and no facial hair. He wore a pair of black combat boots and a pair of black cargo pants covered in dust with a dark blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top two buttons undone and a black cloth wrapped around his neck. In his hands was the reins to his horse but also a Mauser Model 71 rifle that he'd stolen from his neighbors when he'd ran away. If anyone was likely to turn a relaxing night at the bar into a shootout with the cops at four in the morning it was Rio.

The four of them slowly rode up to the Marshal's Office and dismounted with weapons out except for Ashley and walked up to the door. Johnny opened the door followed by his twin while the others waited outside and strode over to the desk where one of the Marshals was sitting. The poor man's eyes widened as he saw who was in front of him.

"Hey there Marshal, long time no see." Johnny greeted with a smirk and the cock of the hammer followed by the sound of thunder.

* * *

After a while, Wednesday had told us to rest up and try to get some sleep before sunrise. Everyone else went back to sleep or at least were trying to, while I was unable to go back to sleep. Currently, the sun was just bellow the horizon and I was sitting at a table in the lobby cleaning my weapons while facing with a cup of warm coffee in front of me. I had found a cleaning kit at the bottom of my bag and had spent the past ten minutes cleaning the barrel and the cylinders. One of my 1851s was taken apart while I cleaned it and the other was put together after I had finished cleaning it.

While I was working on my guns, I made sure to keep an ear open just in case a Grimm that might try and get the drop on us. I knew we'd did a number on them but, it could be a ruse by Salem to lull us before sending out heavy hitters like those giant, two-headed snake Grimm. Once I had finished cleaning the weapon, I began to reassemble it but before I put the cylinder back on, I made sure to load it.

When I had fully reassembled the gun, I half-cocked it and held it to my ear and spun the cylinder to hear each click, making sure I had done it correctly. After hearing six clicks, I placed the revolver on the table after taking it to full cock and letting the hammer down, slowly as to not cause a discharge.

Looking at both weapons on the table I decided that now would be a good time to come up with a name for these. A thousand names slowly began to run through my head in an attempt to find something fitting for dual wielded revolvers. After a minute of thinking, a silly thought popped into my head: since I have three _functioning_ guns I could name them The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I threw that idea out as it was borderline stupid and I want to name all four of my weapons or at least the pair of 1851s.

A moment of silence later, a pair of names that was half decent came to mind: Peacemaker and Parabellum. Peacemaker, for the same reason the 1873 is nicknamed the "Peacemaker" and Parabellum for the phrase of "prepare for war" in Latin which fits my position perfectly. I'm currently enrolled in Beacon's Ranger program which operates as a law enforcement agency and I'm involved in this shadow war with Salem. I slowly nodded as I placed my 1851s in their holsters with Peacemaker being the revolver on my right hip and Parabellum on my left. I decided I'll come up with names for the Schofields once I get the acid burned one fixed just in case it can't be salvaged.

On a separate note, the air had gotten colder than it had been the previous night. Most likely a cold front that had moved in or it was the beginning of Fall. I find the odds of the seasons being aligned on both Remnant and Earth highly unlikely but then again this is a completely different dimension, so who knows. It's best not to overthink some of these profound or complex situations I've found myself in. All I know is that it was September so it could easily be that summer was ending and the cold fall air was moving in.

' _September. Huh._ ' I mused.

Not only had it been a month since I've been here but it was also my birth month which hit me hard. In all my years I never spent my birthday alone, I always hung out with my friends or family and the idea of that made me feel more isolated than anything. I let out a sigh, knowing now is not the time for this and that I needed to keep it out of my head. I also decided to simply not acknowledge my birthday this year as it would bring me nothing but solemn thoughts. Maybe I should try and get a little sleep after all to keep my mind from these gut-wrenching thoughts.

* * *

Thankfully, I got some rest and woke up feeling a lot better but there still was faint pains in my chest from the Hydra. Currently, we were sitting in a circle in the lobby eating breakfast and getting ready for the day ahead. While we were eating, Nikita was cleaning a wound that Yatsuhashi had on his arm from the Siren. Everyone's heads perked up as a symphony of howls were let out, a sign that a pack of Beowolves were approaching. All of us dropped what we were going and rushed out into the street with weapons drawn and ready to fight.

"Okay, here's the game plan." Coco began. "Jakob, Anna. You guys move up to those alleys and wait for them to get close and jump out. If they see all of us, they'll surely turn tail and run."

I gave a salute as my partner and I ran up and ducked into the alleyway on opposite ends of the street. Since my Aura was still pretty recovering from earlier this morning, I decided to fight without the aid of my semblance for the time being. As I heard the approaching Grimm, I cocked the hammers of both guns and sprung out from the alleyway, firing at the two approaching Beowolves. I got lucky with one of them and the bullet ripped through it's eye and it fell to the ground head first but the other Grimm was only grazed and still was charging at me.

I let out a breath as I aimed Peacemaker at the Grimm and was getting the sights lined up on it's head. Readjusting my footing, I inhaled one last time before slowly pulling on the trigger. The Grimm was a couple yards away so I had time to fix my aiming and I knew trying to be fast could get me to miss my shot and if anything, Anna is nearby and can easily follow up. A second after applying pressure, the gun recoiled and a projectile slammed into the Beowolf's shoulder causing it to stagger for a moment.

' _Cock the hammer, breathe in, breathe out, get sights on target and slowly pull the trigger._ ' I recited in my mind as I took those actions.

Once again, Peacemaker bucked and the Grimm staggered but this time it slowed to a walk and howled in pain. It attempted to look at its wound in its neck but howled again as it turned its head. The Beowolf's footing wobbled for a moment then it collapsed on its side and let out one last pathetic howl before it slowly began to turn to dust. The other Grimm had been taken care of by the others and it was quiet again with nothing beyond heavy breaths from combat and the light whistling of the wind. I took the time to reload the spent rounds and take a quick inventory of my ammo on my belt. I still had a good six or seven full reloads left before I had to dig through my bag to get new bullets but I'll worry about that in a bit. Looking around for new targets, I found the street empty of charging Grimm and everyone finishing off the last few Grimm.

"Good hustle, team." Coco stated as her minigun turned back into its handbag form.

"Yes, you guys have done great as most of the Grimm in the town are dealt with." Wednesday explained as he walked up. "However, we still have one last thing before we get to go home, the Siren."

' _Goddamn it._ ' I cursed to myself.

"Thanks to the efforts of Miss Stark, the Siren was badly blinded-"

"As well as us." Anna jabbed.

Wednesday coughed as a sign of his disapproval of being interrupted. "With it being blinded it will take some time to recover it's psionic capabilities which means it vulnerable. Its also still licking its wounds from earlier."

"So, where is it?" Coco asked with a cocky grin.

Wednesday pulled out his scroll and after tapping a few times he closed it and put it away. "Residential district, just down the road." He pointed behind us.

"Then let's get moving." Oliver declared.

We all began to make our way down the street with Nikita and Fox in the front and Velvet and Anna in the back with everyone else somewhere in between. After a few minutes the commercial buildings began to turn to smaller shops and houses began to appear on the horizon. Oddly enough, we hadn't encountered that many Grimm on our way to the Siren's location. Salem had to have been pulling them out herself because what other reason would there be significantly less Grimm in the city. After all, this was a cold war and sometimes you have to make concessions to focus more important matters or bigger battles. The city had already been deserted for several years and offered little to no strategic value to Salem and she's redeploying the Grimm elsewhere. Also allowing us to take the city would spread our limited resources thinner and would give her the clear advantage. In hindsight this mission hurts us more than it would help us because now Vale has to send people to rebuild the city and then send settlers over and they might get a working city in a decade if they're lucky. Moving on from the tactics of this cold war, I have to focus back on the search and destroy mission we are still on.

As we walked down the road going through a neighborhood, I looked up from the asphalt of the road to see something duck into an alley a block a head of me. I couldn't make out what it was but I doubt it was an ordinary Grimm as I'm sure it would have just charged us. My right hand moved up and rested on Peacemaker since I didn't know what to expect and I made sure my left hand wasn't far from Parabellum. I kept my eyes on the alley the figure had went into, waiting for it to jump out when we get closer.

"Jakob?" My eyes darted as I was brought back into reality.

"Yeah?"

Oliver walked up to my left and motioned his head in front of us. "Something out there?"

I paused for a moment. "I don't know. I saw something move into that alley." I stated, pointing out the area.

"Think it was the Siren?" Fox inquired.

"Maybe." I replied.

"One way to find out, then." Yatsuhashi chimed in.

Coco nodded. "I agree with you, big guy."

"Anna. Can you get up on that rooftop?" Oliver asked, pointing to a house on our right a while a head.

"You got it, monsuire." Anna then ran ahead of us.

"Yatsu. You, Nikita and me will go to the other street and make sure this thing doesn't run." Coco commanded.

The three quickly broke away and used the next intersection to get to the parallel road. The rest of us made our way down the street as before but with Oliver and I taking point. By now I had both Peacemaker and Parabellum in my hands, cocked and ready for action. I could feel I had a moderate amount of Aura again that I could safely use my semblance and have enough Aura for protection just in case. Both revolvers were now aimed at the alleyway as we walked closer and closer to the opening. Just as we got within ten feet, an unholy screech was let out that caused me to cringe in pain before a black creature charged out of the alleyway. I hastily activated my semblance and fired two rounds at the charging Siren which hardly moved it off it's b-line towards me. Diving out of the way, I made sure to grab Oliver and pull him the the ground as it was likely going to slash both of us.

As I got to my feet I noticed something off about it's eyes which kind of resembled human eyes but with red irises in a black pool of darkness and they were focused on me. Again, I brought Peacemaker and Parabellum up and began to fire as it slowly advanced towards me this time. Both Oliver and Anna began to pop off rounds but it didn't seem too worried about them as it continued towards me. Eventually, its legs were encased in ice thanks to Anna but it's razor sharp claws had cut the thick ice into nothing more than shaved ice for snow cones.. Velvet ran up and attempted to kick it, only to be swatted away and sent into a window of a nearby house. By now, the others converged and Yatsuhashi ran up and swung at the Grimm but it had used its claws to block the attack and even hold its own against the towering man. Two clicks broke me from my thoughts, meaning I was out of ammo. I holstered Parabellum and attempted to reload Peacemaker while the others were holding it back.

"Nikita, blast it!" Oliver cried.

"I would hit all of you and given this attack has a discharge of thirty-two amps-"

"We got it!" Wednesday replied.

As I placed the third bullet into the cylinder, I looked up to see the Grimm right in front of me. I quickly rolled away, narrowly avoiding its claws which tore up the neglected lawn. Once I had rolled away, I ran to a safe distance to finish reloading. The Siren then swatted Oliver to the side who landed close by me before it took two blows from Fox's gauntlets followed by a handbag to the face which cause its head to whip to the side. It's head remained in place for a moment just before, like out of the Terminator, the Grimm just moved its head back to its normal place before slashing at Coco who jumped back to avoid the attack. By now, I had reloaded Peacemaker with electric Dust and fired around at its back which struck center mass.

The Grimm again unleashed an unearthly scream before it turned around to face me. I could have sworn it's eyes narrowed at me before it began to sprint at me. As it ran, Yatsuhashi ran along side it and swung again but this time the Grimm wasn't fast enough to block it and its hand fell to the ground before fading to Dust. While it was stunned, I used my semblance to slow time and line up a shot on it's left eye and let my breath slowly out before pulling the trigger. The creature wailed and flailed its arms wildly, hitting Fox by accident as it began to stagger. With it in hysteria, Yatsuhashi charged forth and slashed across its midsection, only for his blade to get stuck half way. Oliver had parried its claw and thrust his saber into its neck but that had not killed it yet. Anna had jumped off the roof with her rifle in its melee form and stabbed it in the torso after landing and the creature continued to attack blindly.

It then swatted all three away leaving their weapons embedded in the Grimm. However, the Grimm had pushed everyone out of the way of Nikita, Coco, Wednesday and Velvet who had a copy of Gianduja. I quickly dove away to make sure I didn't accidentally get shot just before a hail of bullets and the deafening hum and crackle of electricity was unleashed. The Siren howled one last time before its screams were drowned in the gunfire and electrical discharge which then stopped a few moments later. Turning my head, the Grimm had fallen to its knees while slowly fading away and just before it completely vanished, it turned to look at me with its one remaining eye. The weapons that had been in the Grimm fell to the ground with a clatter but were unscathed. The street was quiet besides the heavy breaths of all of us and the scraping of metal across concrete as weapons were retrieved. I pushed myself off the ground and dusted myself off after holstering my weapons.

"Who's up for ice cream?" Coco joked.

' _Damn, ice cream sounds really good right now._ '

* * *

Salem had an irritated stare after watching one of her most dangerous Grimm be destroyed by Ozpin's misguided children, even with her influence. Granted, Wednesday's powers saved their lives but it still irked her. She let out a breath, remembering that she would win soon enough, so she would allow their victory today. She dismissed the Seer which floated out of the room while she turned her gaze to the window. She silently admired the Terran's desire to survive, even against a superior enemy such as the Hydra. Then again, every Terran she'd dealt with held the same determination as him and they all fell to her one way or another. They may have been fighters but they were Humans and all Humans have their faults which become their undoing, it was only a matter of time before she or Cinder or even whoever Cinder will get to spy on the boy before they find his. For now, Salem would have to wait close to a year for her to final have the upper hand against Ozpin and she could wait as she had the patience of stone and the will of the stars.

* * *

I had never slept more like a rock then for most of the trip back to Beacon. The decent had woken me up and I was watching out the window as the landing pads of Beacon grew closer and closer. I had actually missed the academy as it wasn't infested with Grimm like that town was. The Bullhead touched the ground with a jolt, which woke up anyone else that had fallen asleep while we were flying. The door slowly opened and we all piled off with our bags. The setting sun nearly blinded us as it reflected off of the many windows of the campus.

"Thank god we're back! I've been dying for a shower." Coco exclaimed as she stretched her arms.

Everyone silently agreed as we made our way to the dorm rooms with no hesitation. Once we'd arrived at our dorm, Nikita practically kicked down the door and sprinted into the bathroom with a change of clothes. The three of us shared a look of confusion, before we all shrugged our shoulders as this was nothing new with the resident mad scientist. Anna and Oliver began to debate who would get the shower next but I was too busy walking over to my bed. Since we still have tomorrow off to recover from the mission as per Beacon's rules for first years, I'll shower once I wake up tomorrow. For now, I want to lay down on my bed and read some more _Starship Troopers_ before I succumb to sleep. I also made a mental note to talk with Nikita or visit the academy's blacksmith about repairing my revolver.


	12. Chapter 12: R&D and R&R

Chapter 12: R&D and R&R

* * *

The morning was calm and blissful, the sun had yet to reach the horizon so the sky was filled with orange and yellow. A nice tranquil moment to wake up to after the hellish past few days I went through, between the dangerous Grimm and the beat downs I've been getting in Goodwitch's class and without Nikita accidentally burning down half the dorm. Maybe, just maybe, my luck was turning around since it was a nice morning and that we had the day off so I could relax. Then as if Lady Luck heard me and said 'fuck that' a sharp pain shot through my ribs. I gripped my side while I sat up quickly and hissed sharply as my grip tightened in a vain attempt to alleviate the stinging sensation. After a while the feelings subsided and I sat in bed still grabbing my side, seeing if I could feel anything broken or out of place. Then I forced my self to cough and put my hand to my mouth then looked at my hand. Thankfully there was no blood which meant that my lungs were okay and I probably just had a bruised rib at worse.

I eventually pushed myself out of bed and made my way to the shower after grabbing some clothes. It was so great to have hot shower after days of running around and fighting in an abandoned town. Once I finished my shower, I walked over to my bed to look over at my ruined revolver and let out a sigh. I still need to figure out what I'm going to do with it; rebuild it or replace it. I figured it would be better for me to rebuild the damaged one as it would be cheaper and less time consuming. Sure, I'll still be limited to a total of twenty-four shots but my semblance surely helps me land those shots. I had really enjoyed the style of the Schofields plus the open top design allowed a faster reload but maybe there was something that I could add to it. There is always room for improvement when it comes to weapons but I don't know what I would want to add.

I don't want it to weight too much as carrying close to twelve pounds worth of guns on my hips plus the ammo and the belt itself is enough for me. I also don't need anything too bulky either as I rely on my maneuverability to get myself out of harm's way. I guess one thing I could do is upgrade to a higher caliber but going too high was also something I want to avoid for the sake of my wrists and ammo capacity. But then again 45 Long Colt is a decently large round for a handgun at nearly twice the powder of a traditional 45 round. I could just get heavy powder loads to increase stopping power just enough to be more effective without dealing with ridiculous recoil.

Maybe I should think about an upgrade that helps when its in its gauntlet form. Having the six shots per gun for both its standard form and melee form was far too limiting so I should focus on a way to add ammunition. That's when it hit me harder than Coco's handbag, in For a Few Dollars More, Eastwood's character has a leather hand brace so what if I had something similar that had bullets on it that fed the gun while it was in melee form. Not only would it solve that problem but it would also give me more space to carry more ammo. Granted they only went halfway up his forearms but that's fine as it would leave space between it and the rolled sleeves of my shirt keeping flexibility the same. Also having bullets stored on my arm means that I could reload my weapons faster since I don't have to pull all my bullets from my belt. It would be the perfect addition that won't add too much weight and allow the same level of maneuverability as I had prior but could keep me in the fight longer.

I knew what I wanted and now pulled out my phone and crafted a message to the local scientist telling her that I was interested in some weapon upgrades. Now all I had to do was wait for Nikita to respond which could take a while as she tends to get absorbed... and it appears that my scroll is ringing.

"Hello." I greeted.

"It is about time you decided to get upgrades for your weapons. I came up with a redesign that-"

"Easy, Nikita. I wasn't planning on doing anything with the current weapons besides rebuilding the Schofield because of the damage." I explained.

"Of course I was talking about your Schofield revolvers as the two Colt Navy revolvers you own are first generation and I assume they have been in your family for decades." Nikita stated.

I made sure to make a mental note of that and bring that up with Wednesday the next time I talk to him. "Yeah, anyway I was thinking of adding leather hand braces that would carry ammunition that could be used by the Schofields while they are in their melee form."

There was an oddly disturbing silence from Nikita's end before a gasp nearly deafened me. "Brilliant! The added ammunition of even six rounds can keep you in the fight twice as long! Also the-"

"Nikita! I understand your enthusiasm but please take it down a notch or twelve."

"Sorry. I rarely get an opportunity to upgrade weapons like this any more after leaving Signal. I will get started on it and it should be ready by the end of the week."

"Wait, slow down there. You don't have to work yourself to death, I can wait a while." I explained.

"Jakob." Nikita began. "I can not use the Dust lab as classes are being taught so I have very little to do. I am not used to having free time like this as before coming here I worked part time at my father's weapons smith shop. I guess I can be described as a 'workaholic'."

"You could just ask anyone of us to hang out with." I reasoned.

"I understand but I want to work on this first." Nikita stated. "As I said before, I rarely get to work with weapons since coming to Beacon."

There was a knock on the door. "Hold on a sec." I moved the phone away from my mouth. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal Coco dressed in casual clothing. "Hey, Cowboy what are you up to?"

"Talking with Nikita about some weapon modifications."

Coco waved her hand dismissively. "Sounds boring."

I shrugged my shoulders before returning to my call with Nikita. "I'll leave you to it, I guess."

"I will bring it to you when I am finished."

I hung up my scroll and turned to face the leader of Team CVFY. "What are you up to?"

"Looking for someone to bother. Velvet forced Yatsu to visit the school infirmary for his wounds from the mission and Fox wanted to sleep in so I figured I would bother the sister team." Coco explained.

"Well, I don't know where Oliver and Anna went and Nikita wants to bury herself in work so you're stuck with me."

"What a tragedy." Coco moaned in mock dejection. "Left alone with an attractive guy I like, woe is me."

"Yeah, poor Coco." I joked back. "What did you have in mind?"

"I'm dying for some real coffee." Coco stated.

"No breakfast?"

"Nah, I really only have time to get coffee before Shedo swings by. She offered to help me with Oobleck's History essay." Coco then tilted her sunglasses down. "That doesn't mean you can get out of those questions you still owe me."

"Come on, I thought you would have forgot about them by now." I complained.

She just smirked in response. "Next time, don't lose a bet."

I slumped my shoulders. "It wasn't fair, though." I muttered to myself as I followed Coco out the door.

Having a professionally made cup of coffee was heavenly after days of just bottled water and home brewed coffee. It was also nice to go out to get coffee and have a normal conversation with a friend while walking to and from there. It didn't take us long to have gone into town and come back to Beacon. It was the little things like this that I had missed since I first arrived. We talked... well, Coco talked about how her time at Signal since I was curious what it was like.

"Signal was great and all, but only taught sparring and weapon creation and we never fought Grimm until Beacon." Coco explained.

"Really?"

Coco nodded as she took a sip of her coffee. "They taught us about them but we mainly just practiced combat techniques and had supervised and regulated matches against each other."

"Then what did you guys do as your final? What determined you were ready for Beacon?"

"A written test on the weaknesses of the more common Grimm to prepare us for the major academies." Coco stated.

I felt myself pale. "So, the first time you came face to face with Grimm was initiation?"

"Yep. Although we were proficient in combat by then so they weren't too big of a threat, Sirens aside."

I hummed in acknowledgment as I sipped my coffee. "This has been a nagging question on my mind for a while, why do you have a minigun as a weapon as opposed to something more subtle?"

Coco rolled her eyes at the last word I spoke. "Come on Cowboy, you know I don't do subtle. Plus the amount of Dust I can dispense coupled with my semblance means I can tear Grimm to pieces without breaking a sweat."

"Makes sense."

"Of course it does." The fashionista boasted. "Speaking of weapons, since you didn't go to a combat school how did you get yours?"

"They've been with my family ever since they were first made long ago." I 'explained', remembering Nikita said they were first generation.

Coco was surprised. "Really, are they family heirlooms?"

"No, they were just sitting in an old chest in our house for years and I found them one day. They had been left forgotten for years."

"Now on to the eighth question you owe me, what was your village like?"

"It was actually pretty quiet, calm. Despite being isolated, we had a few modern comforts like AC and a communication tower. It was the hot desert that kept us mostly cut off but it also kept the Grimm out, mostly. I lived most my life without seeing a Grimm, it was nice but it was also boring."

"So when the opportunity to come to Beacon came, you took it." Coco filled in for me.

"Yep, here I am at Beacon." I finished before taking another sip of my cup of Joe.

"What did your parents think about it?"

That one caught me off guard and I had to take a second to recollect myself. "They didn't agree with it, feeling I could easily get killed but they supported me all the same. You know how parents are."

My parents had this view when I had originally told them I was interested in joining the military so I assumed it would have been their response _if_ they were here.

"Given your behavior, I can see what they were concerned about."

"Hey, blame the movies I grew up on for teaching me that kind of stuff." I defended.

Coco rolled her eyes. "Its evident with that stunt you pulled in Sunset Coast."

"I thought you were over that?"

"Oh, I am but that doesn't mean I can't remind you of your stupidity."

I moved my hand over my chest. "Please Coco, I'm well aware of my stupidity."

Again, the brown orbs of the fashionista rolled at my comment but her lips curled into a slight smile. "Why do I put up with you? Question nine, what's with the cowboy theme?"

"Well my family had two antique revolvers and my town is in the frontier so I felt it was appropriate. Also, I have an affinity for classic western movies."

"Shocker, shocker."

"Also its a gunslinger theme, not cowboy. Cowboys were ranchers." I added.

"Details."

"Accuracy matters, ya know." Which earned me another eye roll and a smile from the minigun toting fashionista.

"Well, at least it makes sense. That doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt to let moi modify your outfit."

"What needs to be modified?"

Coco's mocha eyes peered over her sunglasses. "Mainly the boots, they just don't fit. They're also pretty worn out."

I looked down at said piece of attire and sure enough they had been through a lot. I can't remember if they were always like that or all of the shit I've been through over the past month or so did that. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to get new boots that could withstand the trials of being a Huntsman.

"You do have a point." I said looking back up at Coco.

She waved her hand. "Of course I have a point."

"I know, that's why I said it."

She huffed in amusement. "Smartass. Thanks for the coffee."

Taking a quick glance, I realize that we were in the dorm room right in front of her team's room. "Yeah, no problem and if you want any help with that essay, I'm across the hall with nothing to do."

"You're just saying that so you can be alone with two attractive young ladies for some _private_ lessons, aren't ya?" Coco asked with glasses tilted down and sly grin on her face.

I playfully smack her should as she laughs. "Get your mind out of the gutter."

"In all seriousness, I appreciate the offer but I should be fine." Coco said as she turned an walked into her dorm.

* * *

The next few days passed in a haze but at least I didn't wake up to pains in my ribs since the first day back from the mission. I never thought I would be happy to be back in school but spending a few days dealing with Grimm make a person appreciate the quiet school life. Although I could deal without the schoolwork I missed because of the mission but after a few days of doing nothing except sitting in my room working I was caught up. One thing that I had caught from the schoolwork was that, shortly following the Great War there was a brief revolution where the monarchy of Vale was restored before being stopped by the first Headmaster of Beacon, Orwell Ozymandias, who was probably a previous incarnation of Ozpin.

The oddest thing about the Aegean Restoration was its leader, Maximilian Aegean, was an occult member who had tried to search for holy objects of ancient religions. That part was not in the school's textbook so I had to look it up myself. One item he was looking for in particular he wanted to find more than keeping himself in power was what he called 'the Holy Spear of Divine Right' which must have been one of the four relics that the academies guard. I'm willing to bet both kidneys that Aegean was an agent of Salem and this was the closest known incident of the shadow games between the two coming to the surface. Come to think of it, maybe the Great War was simply a proxy war between Ozpin and Salem.

Unfortunately, I had to put the cold war for the future of Remnant out of my mind for now since I was in combat class trying my hardest to avoid getting clocked with a baton from Yurik. Of course I get put in a match against this asshole and I don't have the Schofields with me since Nikita was still fine tuning the design which she will not let me see. Either way, big angry racist asshole swinging and me dodging. I didn't need to use my semblance to move and evade his strikes as they were extremely telegraphed. However, I think he just has a mind to hit me with all he's got, knowing that it would ring my bells and take a decent chunk of my Aura.

Just like David with Goliath, I was going to let him tire himself out before I went on the offensive. The baton in his right hand swung for my face which I quickly ducked under followed by the left baton coming towards me from above. I rolled to the right, avoiding the attack before firing a round that had struck him in the ribs. He let out a curse in Russian before winding his arm back and running at me. Knowing what he was going to do next, I aimed for his weapon and shot it from his hand and it landed outside the ring. Before I had a chance to even savor my well placed shot, he had thrown the other baton which had caught my check and sent me to the floor.

I heard a dull ringing and could feel a metallic taste in my mouth before a wave of warmth washed over my face and I felt no pain and heard no ringing. However, there still was blood in my mouth which I spit out once I got to my feet. I then charged at him with my hand wrapped around the barrel of Peacemaker and when I got close enough, I activated my semblance and hit him as hard as I could on the top of his head. He squinted his eyes shut in pain but threw out a blind punch that had connected with my chest and damn near knocked the air out of me. While he was still disoriented with the pistol whip he received, I used Parabellum to shoot the last weapon out of Yurik's hand which slid across the floor and just outside the ring.

Sure enough the buzzer sounded, however I was soon too preoccupied with being tackled to the ground and having to quickly block my face from the flurry of punches. I could hear Goodwitch yelling along side the sound of people rushing to my aid and try to pry him off. With the combined efforts of Yatsuhashi, Nikita, Shedo and Goodwitch's semblance, they got the belligerent Russian off of me and Coco and Fox helped me up to my feet.

"Bezrodnyy ublyudok!" Yurik cried as he tried to fight through three people. "You will learn your place, Sobaka."

By now, both Fox and Coco were holding me back as I was drunk with rage and wanting to throw another good punch at this asshole. "Come on then, you gonna attack me after a fight like a coward or do you want to fight like a man!"

"Enough, both of you!" Goodwitch yelled to regain order.

I had quickly snapped out of my fit of rage and stopped yelling and attempting to beat his ass, while Yurik continued to cursing in Russian but also stopped trying to fight through several people. Both Coco and Fox had also let go of me at this point seeing that I had stopped.

"Will you three please help escort Mister Zagar to the Headmaster's office? I will join you in a moment. Mister Liath, while Yurik's actions are unacceptable that does not mean you have a right to act the way you did, I expect better of you." Goodwitch reprimanded.

While my anger was still present, I knew fighting back wasn't the best idea but he had it coming. I let out a calming breath, knowing if I didn't calm down I was going to get it. "I'm sorry Professor, I let my anger get the better of me."

"You know that it no excuse."

"I understand."

"This is my only warning, I will not tolerate such an outburst again, do I make myself clear?"

I let out a sigh of resignation. "Yes, Professor."

"Good, class dismissed." The blonde huntress said before turning on her heels and briskly walked out of the arena.

"You alright?" Fox asked.

"Yeah." I huffed before leaving for my dorm.

Once I had entered my room, I stormed over to my bed and flopped onto it and closed my eyes hoping to sleep of my fury. Sleep seemed like the best option right now as I'll be unable to make decisions I'll regret later. It took a while but soon enough sleep had found me.

* * *

 _The warm sun felt refreshing and almost nostalgic as it was similar to the warm fall days after the monsoon. However, instead of the desert of the Sonora it was that burnt forest I had dreamt about days ago. This time the wind whistled which added to the desolate atmosphere of the forest which had caused a warm chill to crawl up my spine. As I scanned the scorched husks of the dead trees, I saw something on one of them that looked like a pair of golden eyes that seemed to be staring directly at me. The heat of the sun began to intensify and that warm chill returned and I was frozen in place, feeling as if I was going to burst into flames at any moment._

" _Do you believe in destiny?" The wind sang as fire came rushing towards me from the sea of black tree trunks and consumed my vision._

* * *

It was right when my eyes flashed open and my head had popped off of my pillow when there was a knock on the door. Given by the fact there was still sunlight meant I must have only been asleep for an hour at most. I pushed myself off the bed while I muttered obscenities as I trudged to the door.

I slowly opened the door and was greeted to Fox who seemed surprised with my disheveled, tired and upset appearance. How he was able to see my appearance to give that kind of reaction is beyond me.

"Hey." I groaned out.

"Are you okay?" Fox asked.

I let out a sigh. "No, not really."

"If its any consolation, Zagar is suspended from missions for a month and has two weeks of detention."

"At least he got what he deserved."

"Try to not let this get to you." Fox said, resting a hand on my shoulder. "People like Yurik aren't really worth the effort or the risk if you try to retaliate."

I nodded in agreement. "Hey, uh... thanks for the advise."

"Anytime, we are friends after all."

* * *

The next few days passed without any similar incident but my anger over the fight still lingered. It wasn't a 'fight on sight' feeling but it irritated me how attacked me after the match was over. All it proved was that Yurik was a sore loser and a coward that couldn't admit defeat. I dispelled that line of thought from my head as to not ruin my day thinking on something that already happened. Refocusing my attention, I went back to my schoolwork that I was working on to get ahead so I could have more time available later. As I was writing down an answer to a question, a metal case was slammed down in front of me causing me to fall out of my chair.

"Behold my best work since the creation of the Alternating Current Gauntlets Mark II!" Nikita declared proudly.

"I'm glad you're happy with it but you don't have to slam it in front of me and give me a damn heart attack in the process." I said as I got back to my feet.

"I seriously doubt your heart is that weak. Anyways, I have completed the upgrades that you have requested one day ahead of schedule."

I approached the case and opened to be greeted with the pair of nickle Schofields along side a pair of brown leather gauntlets that had two rows of bullets that wrapped around it. The bullets were on some kind of metal belt that also ran round the gauntlets that must have moved the bullets around and into the guns when they were in melee form. I put the gauntlets on and they were a perfect fit and they covered from the top of the hand to the middle of the forearm, they were damn comfortable too. Then, I grabbed the two revolvers and flicked my wrists which caused them to change into the melee form they used to be the the added change of the cylinder lined up the the first row of bullets. The cylinder morphed into a metal band that covered the bullets in that row, which probably fed the ammo into the gun.

"Wow." I stated as I swapped the weapons back into their revolver form. "This is badass! I can't believe this took you _only_ several days to make."

"As I have said, I had the time to spend on this project and the experience of working with my father allowed me to spend less time in the building phase and more time testing." Nikita explained.

"You've tested them?"

"Of course. I would not give you a product that could potentially explode in your hand."

"Nikita." I began calmly. "Did it explode on you and how many times?"

"It did not explode at all."

I let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, because I'd feel terrible if you hurt yourself working on my weapon."

"I understand but I also took the necessary precautions to ensure I would not suffer any injuries."

"Good. Oh, before I forget how much did it cost you?"

"What do you mean?"

"The materials? For the upgrades?"

"Oh." Nikita let out before raising a hand. "You do not have to worry about that."

"Come on, you spend your free time slaving away on my weapons and I offer to reimburse you and you decline?" I asked bewildered.

"Yes, I decline."

"At least let my buy you... lunch or something. I feel bad for making you have to pay out of your pocket for me."

Nikita gave a kind smile. "I appreciate the sentiment, but it did not cost me too much. Consider this... compensation for what I did during initiation."

"Knocking the air out of me isn't equal to the cash spent, that much I know."

"I take it there is no arguing with you?"

"Nope, I'm a pretty stubborn man."

"Okay, the next time the team goes out for food I will allow you to pay for my meal." She said extending a hand.

I shook her hand. "Deal."

* * *

"I think Amber may be in danger." Wednesday stated.

Ozpin looked up from his work at his old friend. "And what made you come up with that conclusion?"

"Vernon Forestall is dead, more specifically he was murdered."

Ozpin sat in silence as he analyzed the information given to him. He had assigned Forestal, a former teammate of Amber, to be the guardian of the Fall Maiden and had given them a mission to hunt down a Goliath that was too close to a village. Why they weren't together Ozpin had found odd, but he was grateful since that kept the Fall Maiden away from Salem's agent.

"Is there anything else about Forrestal's death?"

"Three different weapons used, so three attackers. Whoever they are scared the hell out of the witnesses because no one is talking." Wednesday said as he collapsed into a seat. "Vern was a good kid, he didn't deserve to go out like that."

"No good man ever does." Ozpin consoled. "I'll try to get in contact with some one close, while you try to get a hold of Amber and inform her what happened."

"We both know who closest."

Ozpin let out a light sigh. "Qrow's been out of contact for several weeks, he could also have been killed."

"He's not that lucky. He's probably preoccupied with a bottle or some bar girl."

"Even more reason to find someone else, this is a matter of importance. I can't wait on him to finally answer his scroll." Ozpin explained.

"Oz, if we tell him what's going on he'll respond." Wednesday defended. "He knows the severity of this situation."

Ozpin placed his hand on his chin. "I'll inform Qrow, but I'll try to get somebody in as backup. If they made quick work of Forestall then they are extremely dangerous."

Wednesday nodded and made his way over to the elevator to leave. Ozpin sat in contemplation for a moment. How did Salem know who was protecting Amber and where to find them? Where did these three assailants come from since the little information about the attackers doesn't match what he knows about Salem's associates. This was worrying, if Salem was allowing her members to act so brazenly then she is planning her final move. If the Fall Maiden is being targeted then Vale is the center of this scheme so he would have to keep a tighter eye on the kingdom.


	13. Chapter 13: Train to Nowhere

Chapter 13: The Train to Nowhere

* * *

Another Saturday came around which meant while I should be sleeping in and relaxing I was with my team, training. This time things were different as it was Anna and I sparring each other with Oliver and Nikita observing the fight. Their role was to take notes on what we were doing good at and what we weren't doing good at. Team CFVY was absent as they had been asked to help Professor Port catch a few Grimm for his class. Currently, Anna and I were standing opposite each other waiting for the match to begin. I had my Schofields that I had decided to name Veritas and Aequitas, which was Truth and Justice in Latin, set in their melee form while Anna also had Sainte Emeute in its poleaxe form.

Our ranged capabilities were well known, so Oliver incited a strict 'no range mode' rule for this fight. I knew that Anna's poleaxe had more reach than me so I needed to be more agile and unpredictable to avoid being hit with a stronger weapon. It doesn't help that her semblance allows her to absorb and disperse kinetic energy across her body to lessen its effects, meaning it will take a lot to put her on the ground. Essentially, her semblance is a lot like Kevlar. Maybe, I might have a chance if I can get in enough hits to begin with so she has less Aura to fuel her semblance.

The buzzer sounded and I immediately charged forward knowing Anna would expect it. She moved her left foot back and took a defensive stance as I continued forward. As I got closer I reeled my right fist back and as I released my punch, I also fired a round from the gauntlet to add more power to the attack. Anna used her poleaxe to redirect my hand away but I hit her in the ribs with my left. She quickly reacted by slamming the bottom of Sainte Emeute into my chest to push me back. I stumbled back with a groan but hastily regained my posture in time to narrowly dodge an overhead attack from Anna.

The next punch I threw was blocked by the flat side of the axe head and made a loud thud noise. I hissed as I took a step back and quickly shook my hand before refocusing on the battle. Anna shot me an apologetic look before swiping at my midsection from the left. Knowing that I didn't have the time or space to dodge the attack, I brought both arms to my left side to block the impact which nearly caused me to lose my footing.

The next thing I saw was a boot to the face which did cause me to stumble to the floor. On instinct, I elbowed behind me and luckily had caught Anna in the gut then I sprung up to my feet. As I reeled my fist back, Anna had hooked the axe head around my wrist, jumped in the air and before I knew it I was slammed into the floor. Taking a moment to reevaluate the situation, I rolled to my right, got to my feet to take up a boxing stance and wait for Anna make her move.

So, going on the offensive won't work since Anna had a pretty solid defense and her weapon made it easier for her to parry my attacks. Anna then charged me and pulled her poleaxe back, ready to swing. As she got into range Anna swung Sainte Emeute at my chest but I knew it was coming and with the aid of my semblance I ducked under the swing and sprung forward at Anna. Due to the momentum of the swing, Anna couldn't retaliate and took an upper cut followed by a right hook that she narrowly dodged. She used the pole of her poleaxe to push me away and swiped for my ribs but I was able to jump back in time to avoid the strike.

Anna followed up with an over head strike that I couldn't avoid so I used my semblance to bring my hands up, crossed in order to block the attack. For a minute or two, we both pushed against each other attempting to over power the others defense. Realizing that I couldn't hold forever, I rotated my wrists so the back of my hands were on both sides of the pole and threw my hands to the right and towards me. The move had caused Anna to stumble forward to be met with a kick to the gut that caused her to stumble back a few feet while losing her grip on her weapon.

With the sound of metal clattering on to the floor, I rushed forward and let a right hook fly. Anna ducked under the swing and side stepped the left hook that followed. Anna kicked me in the hip before another kick had landed on the side of my knee which nearly caused my knee to buckle. When I threw a right jab, Anna foot smashed into the side of my ribs but I was quick to react and wrapped my arm around her foot. She must have anticipated the move as she brought her other foot up to my chest and launched me onto my ass a good four feet away.

Jumping up to my feet, I saw Anna sprinting for her poleaxe so I also ran for the weapon ready to swing. Anna slide under the attack and based on the sound of metal scrapping across the floor. Knowing I needed to turn around, I fired a round from the gauntlet which gave me enough energy to spin around one hundred eighty degrees but not without being jarring and causing me to be dizzy for a moment.

Thankfully, after a moment I had regained my bearings and had enough time to dive to the side to avoid a swing from my right. I rolled a few feet before I got back onto my feet and took up a defensive stance as Anna slowly approached me with the poleaxe ready to swing. Each step she took, was slow and methodical likely a result of her trying to read my defense and guess what I was going to do.

I knew what my plan was and waited for her to get closer. She must have known that I was right hand dominant and tended to open with an attack from the right so I needed to change that up. After a few steps, Anna was at least seven feet away and was still scrutinizing me which meant now would be time to attack. I rushed forward with my right hand cocked back ready to let it fly which caused Anna to adopt a strong defensive stance as she planted her feet firmly in place.

As I threw the right hook, I stopped it halfway to its target and threw a quick left hook, enhanced from a round fired from the gauntlet giving it more speed. The attack landed perfectly, and Anna twisted with the hit. However, my victory wasn't enjoyed for long as Anna had swung her poleaxe towards my gut and I had no time to react.

' _To quote a great man: "It was at this moment he knew, he fucked up"._ ' I thought the second the flat side of the axe head caught my gut.

I remember seeing the ceiling of the training room before I saw the gray floor and landed violently, face down. As I pushed myself to my knees, the buzzer sounded and I saw a white line in the floor in front of me; I had been eliminated due to ring out. I let out a breath as I got to my feet and dusted myself off.

"That was definitely a close one." Oliver called out.

I looked up at the screen that monitored Aura levels and both mine and Anna's were barely in the orange. I'm sure her semblance requires a lot of Aura to disperse absorb energy like that. Anna walked up to me and we both shook hands.

"Jakob, you have greatly improved your hand to hand capabilities." Nikita began. "You have also shown that you can be more adaptable in combat. However, I recommend that at the beginning of a fight, you start off evasive to take the time to analyze their patterns."

Oliver then put forth his two cents. "I agree. With your lack of training, no offense, you're still outmatched by most other students. However, that is also a strength since most will underestimate you."

"Good point, although in a real match I'll be able to use the revolver modes to keep my distance too."

"Not a bad idea." Oliver said before turning to the sharpshooter of Team ORNJ. "Anna, don't rely too heavily on your semblance since it drains your Aura. Also try fainting attacks to trip up the enemy's defense; your attacks were pretty predictable."

"It is great to see such cooperation and constructive criticism in a team." The voice of the wise Headmaster called out.

We all turned to see Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch walking up. I honestly was expecting to see Wednesday alongside the older professor, it was kind of weird to not see the two of them together.

"Good morning, Professors." Oliver greeted. "What brings you here?"

"Unfortunately a mission." Ozpin said which had confused us.

Usually, first year students were given a two week period before being sent on another mission and it had barely been over a week since our mission to Sunset Cove. Also, it was about nine on a Saturday so it was far to late to send us on a mission but Ozpin could easily pull some strings. Another thing that struck me as odd, was why didn't he go to anyone else. Its not like every first year team went on a mission at the same time, ours was a special assignment.

Oliver looked at all of us before returning his gaze to the Headmaster. "Professor, it hasn't been two weeks since the last mission."

"I understand this is unorthodox, but with Team CFVY unavailable your team is the next best team for this mission." Goodwitch began. "There is a train bringing vital supplies such as food, water, Dust and building materials to a small settlement."

"Verstalen Railroad as well as the Schnee Dust Company, which is supplying the Dust, are concerned about Grimm activity and asked for extra security." Ozpin explained. "While we believe Grimm activity in the region to be low, we still have to take their request seriously."

"However, we do believe that sending a second year or higher may be 'overkill' for the mission. While you are first year students, after your mission to Sunset Cove both Team ORNJ and CFVY are now ranked the top two teams in the year." Goodwitch stated.

"So we're the best without being too good?" I asked bewildered.

"Let me put it this way, there are missions that might require second, third or fourth year teams and we would rather have them available for those missions than being on a train for two days dealing with a few Beowolves." The blonde Huntress explained.

Nikita was the first of us to speak. "That is a rational conclusion."

"Why do they feel its necessary to have additional security? This is the SDC we're talking about." I countered.

The seemingly stoic Headmaster uncharacteristically rolled his eyes. "While the Schnee family has the wealth to hire mercenaries, Jacques Schnee prefers to save money at every possible turn. Even if that means using the academies to do so since declining would not be great for public relations." While Ozpin spoke calmly, he clearly had an axe to grind with Jacques Schnee not that I blame him.

"So you can see the final reason why we don't want to send higher year teams. However, on the off chance of a serious Grimm presence we know you can handle yourselves." Goodwitch stated.

"When are we supposed to leave?" Oliver asked, despite his disdain of the mission.

"The train leaves at twelve thirty. Credentials will be sent to your scroll that you will show the security personal near the rear of the train." Professor Goodwitch stated as she tapped on her tablet. "The train will be at the Grand Vale Station by eleven."

"If its any consolation, while the SDC is using the academy to cut costs, Verstalen Railroad is offering to pay your team for the help." Ozpin stated.

' _At least they have the decency to offer payment._ ' I thought bitterly.

"One last thing, the train runs through the Avalon Mountains where it will be close to freezing for the next few days, which could delay you if it snows." The Headmaster advised before leaving with Goodwitch.

"Well, it's nine fifty-two. So, we have an hour before the train arrives and two and a half before it leaves." Oliver stated. "What's our plan?"

"It would be beneficial for us to get on the train as soon as possible, that way they can walk us through our tasks if we have any." Nikita reasoned.

"Also, it would be hard to miss the train if we're on it when it pulls in." I half-joked.

Oliver and Anna nodded in agreement with both of our statements.

"Okay, with it being two days we can pack light." Oliver stated. "I'd recommend maybe a change of clothes in addition to a few meals just in case they don't have food for us."

"Should we pack cold weather clothes?" Anna spoke up. "If it snows and we end up delayed, we may need warmer clothes to avoid using too much Aura trying to keep warm."

"Wouldn't hurt." Oliver said.

"Let's get packing then head into town." I stated.

* * *

The Grand Vale Station was not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be like Grand Central Station which was all underground and subways, not a collection of platforms with above ground rails and trains that all look like they were ripped out of the late nineteenth century. The train closest to the entrance was our train as it was the only one with 'Verstalen' written on the side of the engine. The first three cars of the train were passenger cars but the rest except for the rear two cars and the other engine were flat and loaded with crates and shipping containers. One of the cars was loaded with only crates that had a white snowflake on the side and had several robotic soldiers roaming it. The rest of the flat cars were guarded by actually people wearing dark gray suits with black sunglasses armed with rifles that looked like the ones Atlas's military use. Go figure that the SDC would send robots in place of people, probably for the same reason the asked for our help; to cut costs.

We made our way to the rear cars, which was more armored than the other passenger cars meaning it must be the one that housed the guards. As we approached, a man in a sharp black suit with a bright red vest and gray tie flanked by two guards closed in on us. The man had jet black hair and a well groomed beard, in his suit he had a pin of an anvil over a set of rail.

"Greetings, you must be the team Beacon is loaning us for this trip." The man said. "Team ORNJ, correct?"

"Yes sir." Oliver replied. "I'm Oliver Von Grun and this is Nikita Stark, Annabelle Rouge and Jakob Liath." He added as he pointed us out.

"I am the representative for Verstalen Railroad, Theodore Pitch. I know it may seem grating after our introduction but may I see your credentials to verify your identity?"

We all gave various forms of agreement before pulling out our scrolls and showing them to Theodore. After he looked at all of them he nodded.

"Thank you for your time. I know it may seem redundant but I'd sleep easier knowing that I had personnel who could efficiently handle Grimm, should any appear." Theodore added as he lead us on to the train.

"We understand that the Grimm can be pretty unpredictable." I replied.

We were led into the first armored train car which was filled with bunks; easily twenty or so. Some of the beds were occupied with slumbering people and next to the beds were weapon racks and foot lockers. They seemed basic but definitely were better than sleeping on the floor like the last mission.

"This is the sleeping quarters, the four beds on the far end are yours." Theodore explained as he pointed said beds out to use.

We then moved into the next car which looked more like a living room as it was nicely decorated with a couch, cabinets, tables with chairs around them and even carpet on the floor. At the end of the room was a door that most likely led to a private bedroom

"This car is where you will find me and the Schnee Dust Company's representative, Miss Daisy Ivory. However, you are free to come in here to rest and relax. It's the least I can do to thank you for your assistance." Theodore added.

"If I may ask, why are there regular passenger cars?" Nikita asked.

"Ah!" Theodore exclaimed. "While this train is carrying valuable supplies, it is still a civilian train so we are still carrying passengers."

Oliver was the next person to ask a question. "Is they anything specific that you would need us to do?"

"Maybe, have one or two of you walk the train, and watch the area. I'm not too familiar with guarding trains from Grimm, hence your involvement." Mister Pitch admitted.

"We'll come up with a routine and I'll tell you before we leave." Oliver said.

"Very well, help yourselves to the drinks and food here as well. If you need me, I'll be in the next car briefing the guards and please, call me Theodore or Teddy. I feel that Mister Pitch makes me old." Theodore said before exiting the car.

"Well, he's nice." I stated to no one in particular.

"Okay, here's the drill." Oliver said, grabbing our attention. "Two of us will patrol the train every hour for about ten minutes after we leave. Every six hours, we'll rotate who's one person who is going to be on patrol until we reach our destination, then same thing on the way back. I'll keep in contact with Ozpin for any updates on Grimm activity in the area and we'll update our plan if the situation requires it."

"Sounds good to me." I said.

Anna nodded.

"Well thought out." Nikita said, which I assumed was her way of agreeing.

"I'll be back in a moment." Oliver said as he left to inform Theodore.

* * *

The first six hours passed uneventfully and I was coming back from my last patrol for another twelve hours. I didn't even see a bird in the sky as this train snaked its way through the Emerald Forest and towards the mountains. This was by far more boring than being stuck in Professor Port's class listening to his bullshit stories. I guess the upside of this whole thing is we are going to get paid for this. I entered the second armored train car and sat down on the sofa. I relaxed and closed my eyes in the hopes of getting some sleep but my eyes snapped open when I felt my scroll buzz.

"Hello."

"I heard your team got assigned a mission." Coco stated.

I huffed. "Pretty uninteresting. We're just guarding a train."

"Probably better than trying to trap Grimm with Port blabbering about his 'fearless adventures from his youth'."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Its been six hours and we haven't seen anything. At least you guys had something to do."

"Fair point. Although, your mission ruined my plans for the day. You still owe me that 'nice dinner' you promised."

"Hey, this wasn't optional and it would have been given to us or your team if you guys weren't already on a mission."

"Lucky us." Coco joked. "When are you supposed to be back?"

"Two days, maybe a little longer if snow falls on the mountains we're supposed to go through. So with any luck, we'll be back Monday afternoon."

"Hopefully. Either way, are you busy right now?"

"No, I have a lot of time to kill."

"Good, we just got back from helping Port. Although, we were going to ask if you guys wanted to join us in going into Vale."

"Kind of hard to do that when our team is on a train heading in the opposite direction."

"You really are a smartass."

I let out a laugh. "So I've been told. Anyway, how did your little round up go."

"Fine, all things considered. We managed to trap two Boarbatusks and a Beowolf. The crazy old fool wanted us to try and capture an Ursa but it was too smart to fall into our traps."

"Did he ever explain why he needed live Grimm?"

"He said something about them being used for demonstration in his classes. Something about, learn by doing."

"Oddly fits his style." I huffed. "Although, by now every first year has come into contact with Grimm so it would be moot."

Coco hummed in agreement. "I can hardly tell why either." I overheard someone talking in the back ground. "Yeah. Well, I have to get going."

"Alright, tell the team I said hello."

"Likewise, and don't do anything too stupid."

"No promises."

With that, I hung up and put my scroll back into my pocket. I again let my body relax, slowly closed my eyes and tried to get a little sleep in. The sound of the door sliding open had forced me to open my eyes. Standing in the doorway, was Anna with her weapon in one hand while leaning against the door frame.

"You should see this." She said as she gestured behind her with her free hand.

I sprung to my feet and followed her out onto the flat car where both Oliver and Nikita as well as a few of the guards were standing. Following their gaze, I saw that there was a back of seven or so Beowolves that were running parallel to the train a good several dozen feet away.

"What do we do?" One of the guards asked.

"I don't know." Oliver stated. "They don't seem interested in us, but why?"

"Has there been any change in Grimm activity, boss?" I asked.

Oliver slowly shook his head. "I'd just spoke to Ozpin a few minutes ago."

"Then why worry." A guard said. "They ain't bothering us."

After he said those words, the Grimm changed course and were now running to intercept the train. I looked over at the guard that had just spoke with a deadpan expression.

"You had to jinx it." I huffed as I activated my Aura.

Returning my focus to the Grimm approaching, I drew Veritas and Aequitas and began firing at the Beowolves. Anna and Oliver did the same thing, while Nikita had started to charge up her gauntlets and waited for them to get closer. Shooting at a moving target was already hard enough but shooting at a moving target from a moving platform was something else. Sure, my semblance can give me time to line up a shot but that doesn't help me determine where my bullets will land. By the time I get my third shot off, the Grimm jump onto the train but lose a few from the guards who began shooting when they got close. There was about six Beowolves that were now on the car in front of us. The guards backed away from the Grimm and formed a line on the other side of the car, ready for any Grimm to charge at them.

Four Beowolves charged us while the other two charged the guards who began to open fire. The one that was sprinting at me swiped for my head, but I had ducked in time and fired two rounds into its chest, causing it to stumble back in pain. While I had it dazed, I switched my weapons into their gauntlet form and landed a right hook onto its face, followed by a left jab to its abdomen. I then swapped my weapons back into their gun mode but the Grimm swung its claw back, catching me in the gut and sent me into a nearby shipping container.

As I got back onto my feet, I saw the Beowolf running at me on all fours with its jaw open. Not interested in seeing what happens next, I dove to my left and activated my semblance while I was still airborne. Although I was still falling, I was still able aim Veritas at it's eye and Aequitas at its neck and fire. As the bullets struck home, I landed on the ground and deactivated my semblance. The Grimm stumbled for a bit before finally falling to the ground. Just as I mentally patted myself on the back while getting on to my feet, something slammed into me and knocked me back down.

"Sorry about that, Jakob." Anna apologized before she got up into a kneeling position and fired two rounds that killed the Beowolf she was dealing with. "Are you okay?"

"I'm as right as the rain." I said.

Looking around, I could see that the rest of the Grimm were dealt with so I spun both revolvers before holstering them. Thankfully, no one seemed to have been injured in the fight. However, I had a nagging feeling. I couldn't place my finger on what it was or why but I had a feeling that something was going to happen.

* * *

I have found out that I don't sleep well on trains, especially fast trains. I could feel every bump, twist and turn the train made which was mildly nauseating when I had my eyes closed. Not to mention that I could hear the train moving along the tracks as well as the whooshing of the wind louder since I was a Faunus.

Not to mention that there was close to a dozen people in the car, some who snored which also kept me awake. The private car was completely empty, so I had some decent quiet to myself although I couldn't find any sleep. Currently, I was sitting at a table cleaning my weapons trying to do something to preoccupy myself with.

Looking up upon hearing the door open, I saw Oliver and Nikita walk in.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Oliver asked, sitting down on the sofa to my left.

I lazily hummed. "Guess sleep and high speeds don't mix well for me. Anything new?"

"No, there has not even been any change in Grimm activity that we have seen." Nikita stated.

"Although, we do have a problem. These mountains are playing hell with communication so I haven't gotten an update in three hours."

"Great. How long are we going to be in the dark for?"

"About another hour or two at most." Oliver said.

"Fun." I droned.

"It is highly unlikely that a large quantity of Grimm are going to be in the area." Nikita stated.

"Knock on wood." I said, as I tapped my knuckles against the wood.

Oliver pushed himself off the couch and made his way to the exit. "I'm going to get some sleep before the next patrol."

I returned to my weapon maintenance and soon the room became silent save for the sounds of the brush I was using to clean the cylinder of Peacemaker. Once I was sure the debris was removed from the cylinder, I put the weapon back together. When I had finished reassembling Peacemaker, I looked over to see that Nikita was still in the room. However, the look on her face was one of contemplation and uncertainty. I could also tell that she was mumbling something to herself, although it was quiet enough that I couldn't hear any of it.

"Everything okay?" I asked, which had snapped Nikita from her not so inner monologue.

"Oh... I was simply reviewing a Dust formula that could increase the potency of electricity based Dust as to not use as much in a fight." Nikita stated enthusiastically.

I laughed, not at her or what she said but that she had reminded me of myself when I was younger. While I was introverted back then, if I was talking about a subject I enjoyed I could be hard to shut up. Same thing could be said, even now.

"You remind me of myself."

"And this is humorous?" The genius of ORNJ asked, genuinely confused.

I shook my head. "No, that laugh was just me feeling nostalgic about my younger years."

"How so?"

"I have your same enthusiasm but instead of Dust, its about history. I could go on about these cool little facts I learned about some event or person."

"Did anyone ever call you weird because of it?"

I laughed lightly. "Of course I did. Not everyone around me had an appreciation for history but I never let that bother me."

"I try not to, but sometimes I can not help but feel like an outcast." Nikita said as she slumped on to the sofa.

I got up from my seat, walked over to her and sat down next to her while letting out a sigh.

"Nikita, I know more than anyone what that feels like." I couldn't help but stare at the floor.

"Jakob, I did not mean-" I stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I know, but me being a Faunus is not what I'm referring to. I wasn't a popular person back home and when I was in school several years ago, people liked to make fun of my love of history. What I learned was that the opinion of passerbys doesn't matter nearly as much as your friends." I finished, looking back up at Nikita.

"Do you think I'm weird?"

"No, we all have hobbies and interests that are not 'normal'. I mean look at Coco, the girl lives and breathes fashion which isn't what most people would consider normal. Sure, you can be eccentric at times but that is what makes you, you. I mean, we are all weird if you think about it; no one in their right mind would take up a career in monster slaying."

Nikita let out a light laugh. "You have a valid point."

"Of course I do." I said as I stood up. "Look, I'm your friend and you accidentally burning a table isn't going to change that."

Nikita also stood up. "Thank you, Jakob."

"Anytime."

* * *

The next couple of dozen of hours passed by slowly, maybe because I'd yet to get more than an hour of sleep before I would wake up, ready to puke. By the time the train finally rolled into the settlement, I was borderline sleepwalking and had immediately plopped onto a bunk bed. Thankfully it took a few hours to unload the supplies so I'd finally gotten some good sleep. However when we started to get going again, it all went back to shit. By now, I had been so tired that my body practically shut down and I slept like a brick for once. However, I was nearly thrown out of my bed as the train came to a screeching halt. As the train slowly started to decrease speed and the wheels screeched across the tracks, I rolled out of my bed and on to the floor. I used the bed to hold myself up before the train finally stopped with a hiss from the engines. The door flew open and Anna and Nikita ran in from one side while Oliver ran in from the other.

"What's going on?" Oliver inquired, weapon at the ready.

"I'll go up and ask them." Anna said, before exiting the room.

I could feel Oliver look me over as put my gun belt on followed by my hand braces. "You good?"

"I'm mediocre." I said as I gave a tired salute.

A minute or two later, Anna came back in the room with her weapon on her back.

"Trees fell on the track ahead, they're going to stop and clear them." Anna explained.

"Great." I droned.

"Let's go see what caused it." Oliver said as he exited the room.

The rest of Team ORNJ followed suit and we disembarked from the train. The train had came to a stop in a forested mountain pass and there was a light snow on the trees and the ground. There was two trees that had fallen onto the track, but from what I could see there were more trees that had been knocked over or broken. There also was some smoke rising from the horizon some distance away. The four of us shared a look understanding it was likely a crash, before we ran off towards the smoke with weapons drawn.

After several minutes of running, we'd came to a stretch of knocked over trees to find a Bullhead crashed into the side of a hill. The tail of the aircraft seemed to have been completely destroyed and was likely the reason why it had crashed. Some of the trees around us were scorched and even a few where still on fire. We stayed at the edge of the tree line as there were a couple of armed people around the wrecked airship. There was an off-road truck that had been backed into the clearing and had what looked like a missile launcher in the bed. There were crates that had been strewn across the area, some opened showing that they were filled with Black Dust. Whoever these people are, they're definitely bad hombres and mean business.

"What's our move, boss?" I whispered.

"We might be too late to catch these guys if we go back to get help, so we're going to get involved. You and Anna rotate around the area and over to that truck and wait for me to make the first move before we attack." Oliver explained.

Before we had a chance to move, a pilot was pushed out of the airship who was wearing a similar flight suit as the Atlas pilots except it was green. One of the armed men turned to face the pilot then fired a burst of bullets, killing the pilot.

"Never mind." Oliver spoke with his teeth gritted. "Let 'em have it."

Anna took cover behind a tree and had Sainte Emeute in her rifle mode, planning on providing cover for us. I drew Peacemaker and Parabellum and ran forward with Oliver who had his saber, The Iron Chancellor, at the ready and Nikita stayed back in order to charge her weapons. Two shots rang out and two of the attackers weapons flew out of their hands and while they were still surprised, Oliver smacked both of them in the face with the flat side of his blade. The two fell to the ground, knocked out but the others had taken notice and were aiming at Oliver. I quickly activated my semblance and brought both weapons up at the hostiles and fired knocking their weapons out of their hands. I then deactivate my semblance and charged the two, getting one with a hard right hook before the other one was hit by a blast of electricity and fell unconscious.

A final asshole rushed at Oliver with a sword, but Oliver skillfully dodged the strike. Another swing was parried by Oliver who smacked the man in the face with his other hand. The man then attempted to kick Oliver in the chest, but the saber wielder grabbed the man's foot and yanked it forward. As the man stumbled forward, he was clotheslined which had caused him fell onto his back. Oliver kicked the man in the face which had knocked the bandit out cold.

Since there were no more... _conscious_ enemies outside, I ran over to the crashed Bullhead and opened the door after holstering Parabellum. The door opened and I was greeted to a scene that made my blood boil and filled me with a rage I had never felt before. The was another pilot who was backed into the corner of the room with panic and horror on their face and near the the center of the room was a man with dark blue hair who had his bolt action rifle pointing at the pilot. The man turned to face me with a surprised expression before he attempted to aim his rifle at me which caused my heart to beat violently.

 _Thump-thump_

The man let out a curse directed at me.

 _Thump-thump._

There was a silent gasp that had escaped from my lips.

 _Thump-thump._

The man quickly racked the bolt, chambering a round.

 _Thump-thump._

There were four clicks from my hand gun.

 _Thump-thump._

Then, there was the sound of thunder.


	14. Chapter 14: After the Dust Settles

Chapter 14: After the Dust Settles

* * *

I could tell that I was no longer blinking and had a thousand-yard stare. In front of me was the pilot who was covered in red specs, a crimson splatter on the wall of the airship and a man... no, body crumbled against said wall. There was a darker, near black, pool of crimson liquid that was centered in the man's chest and his eyes were glazed over still frozen in surprise. Even his face was left stuck in his final emotion of surprise and his gun was left on the floor abandoned, barrel smoking and also splattered in red flecks.

The room began to smell of iron which had caused my stomach to roll slightly but I didn't think of it too much. My eyes finally blinked and I looked down to see my arm was at waist level, with Peacemaker still in hand. Looking at my hip, I noticed a red stain in the black vest as well as a tear in the article of clothing. I had been grazed! I holstered my revolver and lightly ran my hand over the wound, hissing in pain as I did so. The good thing was that it didn't seem to be too deep, but now the wound had a searing sensation. I could also feel a warm liquid that had been covering the area, meaning that I was still bleeding, but not profusely.

A hand being placed on my shoulder snapped me from my thoughts. I turned my head to see it was Anna who had an understanding look on her face. She then walked over to the pilot and looked over them before leading them out. My eyes again met with the lifeless orbs of the bandit and a cold chill ran up my spine and my stomach sank as I realized that if I had been any slower, I could... no, _would_ have been like him.

I snapped myself out of that train of thought and quickly exited the crashed Bullhead and walked towards my team and a few guards from the train. I made a few steps before I had to lean against a crate as my injury began to sting as if it was being sprayed with acid and someone was digging around in it. I let out a sharp hiss through grit teeth as I grasped the wound in vain attempt to alleviate the pain. The contact of the open wound with anything was a sharp, burning pain so I lifted my hand off the wound slightly.

I then let out a breath as I tried to focus my Aura to see if I can't use it to heal my wound. Warmth began to wash over the area and the warm liquid stopped flowing. Removing my hand to get a look, I could see that the wound had vanished but the area was still colored red. My vest, shirt, pants and even my boots had blood on them but it was a small area and could have been easily missed since the clothes were already dark colors.

I continued to lean against the crate as I suddenly felt tired and worn out, likely using a large chunk of Aura to heal myself. Given by the fact my Aura was up when I got shot that bandit had Black Dust bullets which means I would have absolutely been killed. Shaking my head to keep _that_ existential crisis out of my mind for the moment, I refocused on now and scanned the area for any bandits that may have been hiding. There didn't seem to be anyone else hanging around except for my team, who were talking with the pilot and the guards who were detaining the bandits. I pushed myself off the crate and walked over to my team.

"They were after our shipment of Dust." The pilot spoke, his voice low. "But the cases of Black Dust are locked with a code that only the businesses know. They thought we had those codes so they tried to get us to 'talk'." Poor kid looked about as young as the rest of us.

"Are you okay?" Oliver asked.

The pilot slowly nodded. "They didn't do anything to me yet, but I saw what they did to him." The pilot then pointed to the body of the other pilot.

The other pilot was littered with cuts, face was heavily bruised and I could barely make out that a few fingers were missing. I was both disgusted and infuriated. If the others weren't here and I had far less self restraint, I would have shot all of the knocked out bandits. Looking back at my team they all had varying facial expressions; Oliver had eyebrows slanted in anger, Nikita had a look of sympathy and sorrow and Anna had an almost neutral expression except for her eyes which held a fury that wanted to be unleashed.

Anna, who sitting next to the pilot, wrapped her arm around him. "You're safe now."

"Thank you."

"We'll escort him back to the train, if its alright with you." One of the guards said, directing it at the pilot.

He nodded and three guards walked over, with two of then helping the pilot walk. I had even noticed that a few of the guards had taken the body of the bandit from the plane with them back to the train. After they were out of sight, I walked closer to the team and Anna sat up and ran over to me, worry plastered on her face.

"Jakob, are you alright?" She asked, likely seeing the bloodstain on my clothes.

"I'm fine." I stated.

"Are you kidding, you're bleeding!"

"I'm alright." I reiterated.

"But you've been shot!" Anna yelled.

I placed my hands on her shoulders. " _Was_. I _was_ shot. Thankfully I had enough Aura to heal myself."

I looked to my right to see that Nikita was poking at the tear in my clothing. "Sorry, but I wanted to confirm that you were not injured. Most tend to hide or down play serious injuries in front of friends and close relations."

"Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean you were _shot_!?" Oliver yelled, walking up to me.

"There was a bandit in the airship, he had his weapon aimed at the pilot. Everything happened so fast and..." I paused letting out a shaky breath. "I-I... I shot him and he grazed me."

Oliver's face slowly lost the anger and worry on it which was replaced with understandment and what almost seemed like sorrow. "Oh, I'm... sorry. Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah." I said before walking back towards the train with the others in tow.

I took a moment to reflect on what had happened. It was clearly self-defense and that man was no saint, there was no question about that. However, there was something inside of me that had didn't sit right within my soul and it wasn't about what I did. It was the fact that guy was about my age and still had many years ahead of him... or he did. Maybe he could have atoned for his crimes and found redemption but that is just wishful thinking on my part. Still that idea lingered in my mind. Hell of a thing killing a man, you take away all he's got and all he's going to have.

* * *

 _Here I was again in this burnt, charred and blackened forest that only consisted of burnt and broken tree trunks and burnt seas of grass. The air still was uncharacteristically warm just as it had been before but the sun wasn't blistering hot like last time. The wind blew a light breeze across the desolate wasteland and bits of ash and debris blew around. The sound of the crunching of dead grass had caught my attention causing me to spin around. There was a coyote that was walking towards me that had blood around its mouth and a wound on its side. The wound was severe and a large red stain had matted the fur of the coyote. The animal walked up to me sniffed at my feet before limping off._

 _The winds then shifted directions, the air became cold, and clouds rolled in and blocked out the sun. Then snow began to fall upon this hellish landscape, leaving everything covered in a blanket of white. As I scanned the surrounding area and saw a speck of red, which looked like some kind of flower. I jumped as a hand landed on my shoulder which also caused me to turn around. In front of me was a man dressed in all black, with a black cloak and hood that disguised his features. The more I inspected the figure I could make out what was under the hood, it was a skull. Then there were eyes in the empty sockets, and they were a familiar pair of brown eyes. Within a blink I was no longer looking at a skull, but an exact copy of my face._

" _Time has a way of sneaking up on all of us, Jakob Liath." The figure spoke in a gravelly voice._

 _As a gust of wind blew by us, the figure in black turned into a thousand feathers and flew away in the wind. The wind then stopped entirely and there was not a single trace of the man to be found. Then the air began to become warm again and the clouds went away causing the area to be covered in light again. The odd thing is that the forest got brighter and brighter until it was as if I was gazing into the sun. I was forced to shut my eyes to prevent them from being burned out of my head._

" _It's only a matter of how long, Jakob Liath." The gravelly voice rang in my ears._

* * *

I bolted awake and slammed head against the top bunk on the bed and fell back onto the bed clutching my cranium. Quickly looking around, I found myself still on the train and nothing else in the room that was out of the ordinary. I laid still for a moment to allow my heart beat to return to normal alongside my breathing. Once that had happened, I then rolled myself out of bed and rolled my neck before stretching to help myself wake up. Guessing by the fact that light was coming in through the windows means it's morning. I had finally been able to get a decent nights sleep since I had finally adjusted to being on the train although, I was still pretty tired. Nothing of note really happened after getting back on the train, not even a Beowolf was anywhere to be seen. We did drop the pilot off at a nearby town to have a doctor check him over as well as the dead bandit and his detained friends but beyond that nothing else happened. I had also washed the blood from my clothes but some of it was still discolored and not to mention torn from the bullet.

I walked into the private car to find my team seated at one table, eating breakfast. I joined them after realizing just how hungry I was since I don't remember eating since getting on this train. It was a nice quiet moment that we all got to enjoy but may have been a little too quiet since no one was talking. I guess the events of yesterday was still present in everyone's mind, can't say I blame them. Yesterday went from a quiet train ride to having to deal with a murderous gang that was trying to steal Black Dust in a split second.

When we finally rolled back into Vale, we were instructed to return to Beacon immediately by Ozpin. We were taken by Bullhead back to Beacon and guided by both Wednesday and Goodwitch up to Ozpin's office. The walk was quiet and nerve wracking as no one was talking and both teachers seemed laser focused on escorting us to the top of the tower. As we walked in there was someone who I didn't recognize standing alongside the Headmaster who both seemed to be talking to each other. The two were so engrossed in their conversation that they did not notice us or the other two professors walk in. It wasn't until Goodwitch cleared her throat that both of them had taken notice of us and stopped conversing with each other.

"I apologize, the Marshal and I were just discussing the report filed by Mister Tanner." Ozpin explained.

The man next to Ozpin appeared to be in his late thirties, had green eyes, light blonde hair with a similarly colored mustache and lightly tanned complexion. He wore a sharp gray pinstripe suit but in place of a regular tie was a black string tie and a silver star badge that had the words: "Federal Marshal". Everything about this man screamed professional lawman from his proper stance, his quick inspection of us to his worn badge.

"I would like to introduce Charles Brass, Federal Marshal and Alumni of Beacon's Ranger program." Ozpin said, motioning to the gentleman.

"A pleasure to meet you, although I wish it was under better circumstance." The Marshal began. "If you wouldn't mind, can you recount the events of yesterday for me?"

I figured that the question was directed at me so I began to explain what all had happened from being woken up by the train coming to a halt, seeing the smoke in the distance, the crash, the pilot being executed, us intervening and finally my confrontation with the bandit in the Bullhead. I then went on to explain what happened afterward until we had gotten back onto the train. After I finished talking, the Marshal looked over at Ozpin for a second before returning his gaze to us.

"Now am I correct in assuming that the man that you, a first year team, acted without consultation from a professor of Beacon academy or that of local law enforcement?" Marshal Brass inquired.

"Yes." Oliver spoke up. "I knew it could have taken too long to get permission from Beacon and after seeing them execute a pilot, we couldn't sit idle."

"Lucky that you did." Marshal Brass stated. "That transport was carrying Black Dust from the mines into town when it was shot down. Those 'bandits' you came across were actually members of the Exodus and the last thing we need is for those sons of bitches to get their hands on more Black Dust."

"Your quick thinking and even quicker action had saved the life of a pilot, fresh out of the flight academy, stopped several members of a high profile criminal organization and prevent the loss of dangerous materials." Ozpin reviewed. "However, I want to make this very clear."

Ozpin's tone changed to the most serious and stern I have ever seen a man be causing me to shift around nervously. The Headmaster leaned forward and placed both palms flat against the table before pushing himself up.

"Your actions, while well intentioned, were careless, hasty and could have lead to all of your deaths. The Exodus are ruthless murderers who are not above killing people your age to avoid escape and who have previously been armed with Aura negating bullets. I am mainly speaking about your actions, Mister Liath."

I could feel myself shirk further into myself as I always hated getting chewed out and I can honestly say that I've never seen Ozpin like this before and never want to see it again.

"It was lucky that there was only six of them, or it could have gone far worse." Marshal Brass added on. "We want all of you to understand that there are variables that you failed to account for that would have caused things to play out differently. So the next time, you take the time to properly assess the situation and not run in on raw emotions."

"That being said," Ozpin chimed in. "You are not in any trouble since you did not break any rules and are free to go."

"Wait, there is one last thing to state. Since you guys are responsible for the apprehension of Rio Yosimite, you will receive the two-hundred thousand Lien bounty on Rio." Marshal Brass explained. "Now, hopefully you'll get to enjoy the rest of the night."

We then made our way to the elevator and got in. Once the door closed I could finally slump my shoulders and let out a sigh of relief. I was honestly expecting to get chewed out harder or for our team to get slapped with detention or even suspension from missions. Maybe Ozpin thought me getting shot was punishment enough and got his point across before he even made it.

"That could have gone worse." Oliver sighed.

"Definitely could have been worse." Anna added on, nodding her head. "We at least got a good chunk of change out of it."

* * *

Cinder Fall had been looking over a message from her contact at Beacon with a sly smirk slowly forming on her lips. During a mission the Terran had been shot although it was a glancing wound that he had recovered from. However, Cinder was more intrigued with her informant's assessment with how he had been shot. Within the time span of his mission and in an area the train his team was protecting would have passed through, several members of the Exodus were taken into custody with one dead. The dots didn't need to be connected as it was obvious, even if the Vale Police Department didn't explicitly say it.

This led Cinder to formulate a plan on how to deal with the Terran but ensure she stays far away from it. So Cinder used this new information to ensure the Terran wouldn't be a problem. After all there was an old Terran proverb that states: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". She knew the Exodus would be out for blood, but they wouldn't know for who was responsible. If she could get them to take out the Terran then that problem will be solved for her and she could get back to hunting down the Fall Maiden faster. Now she just needed to get a meeting with some of the more 'rational' members of the Exodus to set this plan into motion.

* * *

For someone who's come across several dangerous Grimm, fought ruthless criminals and had been shot, one could be forgive for thinking nothing would faze me at this point. That couldn't be farther from the truth, as a very annoyed Coco Adel dragging me away from my team by pulling on my tie terrifies me beyond the capacity for rational thought. After being dragged around for a moment and after rounding a corner, I was let go and flinched expecting to be slapped but that never happened.

"I understand that danger is part of the job, that doesn't mean I like it." Coco spoke after a sigh.

"I'm not trying to do things like this on a whim." I said, calmly.

Coco nodded her head. "I know... but getting a text from Oliver that you had been _shot_ and you weren't there when we were fighting the Siren... didn't sit well with me. I'm just not used to dating someone who shares the same dangerous profession as I."

I cracked a small smile. "So... we're dating?"

Coco huffed in amusement while shaking her head. "Yes, you idiot. Now, just promise me that you won't run head first into danger unless you absolutely have to."

I slowly nodded. "Yes, I promise and I was never doing stunts like this just because I felt like it."

"I know. Now, on to the next pressing issue: how you are going to make it up to me for giving me a heart attack, twice." Coco said with her signature smirk.

"Wait, twice? You said that slap was the end of the Hydra business."

Coco placed her hand on her hip. "That was for running off, not worrying the hell outta me."

"Okay," I sighed knowing that I was at her mercy. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well in addition to that 'nice dinner' you promised before, you're coming with me the next time I hit the stores."

"Alright."

"And we fix... this." Coco said gesturing at my clothes.

I looked down at my clothing before looking back at Coco. "What's wrong with my attire... besides the bloodstain."

Coco lowered her sunglasses and sent me a 'are you serious' look which caused me to through up my arms in confusion. "The color of your jeans and boots clash with the rest of your outfit."

Again, I looked down at my attire again with a raised eyebrow. "Does it make that much of a difference?"

"To me, yes." Coco smirked.

* * *

As morning came, we went about our day as if nothing had happened. The only one who had shown any sort of affliction over the events of yesterday beyond me was Nikita who was far more quiet and reserved than normal. It took her a few days to return to normal but I could tell that it still affected her as sometimes I could see her with a blank stare before snapping out of it, almost in a brief panic. Every now and then, I'd have dreams in which that moment happens again and I'd wake up with a thin layer of cold sweat and a bit faster breathing. Come to think of it, I was far more troubled with the fact I nearly had been killed than the sight of that dead bandit or the action of killing him.

I'd half expected to be reviewing that moment over and over again to think of a way that I could have subdued him without lethal force but that never happened. It never kept me up at night. Sure I lamented the fact he _could_ have changed but I knew that line of thinking was optimistic at best. It didn't seem to burn my soul or afflict me in any way and I didn't mind it. He was not an innocent man or someone who was worthy or accepting of redemption.

Moving away from the moral contemplation, a week had passed since that mission's unforeseen conclusion and I had been enjoying a quiet Saturday morning reading. Key word: _had_. The door to the room was practically kicked open by Coco and I was dragged off to join her as she went to the store. And when I say dragged off I do mean literally dragged off by the collar of my shirt until we got to the Bullhead. One could have been forgiven for thinking that she was angry at me but she explained that she wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to run away.

"You know that you could have asked and I would have said yes." I mused as I fixed my shirt's collar.

"Where's the fun in that." Coco replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Why do I even put up with you?" I said as I shook my head.

Coco's lips began to form into a smirk and I could tell she was up to no good again. "Well if you didn't put up with me you'd miss out on this."

Before I knew it Coco had closed the distance, grabbed my by the collar again and placed her lips on mine. This was different from the first time, not just because her lips stayed against mine but it was more passionate and deliberate. By now, my body began to act on instinct and I began to kiss back with my arms slowly snaking around her back. She let go of my collar while not breaking the kiss, to grab my hands and place them on the top of her hips before grabbing my collar again. By the time we broke away it was only for a moment as we again began to mash our lips together. Every time our lips connected, there was a faint taste of coffee which was likely what she drank before heading over. The whole experience was amazing and almost electrifying and I didn't want to stop. We continued to make out until the ship jolted from it landing. The two of us slowly broke away with our hands letting go the other person. Coco just licked her lips, smirked then walked towards the opening door, leaving me alone in the airship. I stood enchanted for a moment before straightening my collar again and following after the fashionista.

"Speechless, Cowboy?" Coco playfully asked.

"W-well yeah. That was unexpected."

"But not unwelcome." Coco added.

I nodded. "Definitely not unwelcome."

"Now, lets get back to the purpose I dragged you into Vale."

"Literally dragged."

Coco looked over to me and waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, whatever. I'm taking you to my favorite shop in Vale."

"Please tell me I'm not here to be your private pack mule." I said pointing a finger at her.

She just smirked. "It comes with dating me, Cowboy."

"Fair point."

"Don't be so dramatic, Liath. You'll love this place." Coco added.

After a short walk we came across the clothing store Coco was talking about. I half expected it to be a store with the words "Adel" somewhere in the title but that was not the case. It was a moderately sized outlet that was next to a plaza in the middle of downtown Vale. Even with its location in the city it was a quiet place or just a quiet time of the day but it was a nice surprise. Upon entering there was some soft music which was the only noise aside from the sound of our footsteps. Shortly after entering, the lady from behind the counter waved at us.

"Ah, Coco its nice to see you again. We just got a new fall collection in." The woman said.

I didn't catch what else was said after that as I was trying to deal with a headache. As I tried to massage the headache away I could have sworn I heard someone say "destiny" which might have been the name of the lady Coco was talking to. I figured it must have been headaches from dehydration as they like to hit you hard then fuck off in a matter of seconds. Also, I can't really remember the last time I had water in the past twenty-four hours. I regained my bearings and followed Coco who made her way to another part of the store. As we walked she grabbed a few things off racks and shelves as she walked around the store. She then led me over to the changing booths, handed me the first outfit she gathered and essentially pushed me into the booth. I tried it on then showed Coco who shook her head. This process went of for a couple more times with her holding different articles of clothing in front of me to get a 'feel for it' as she said.

After about three outfits that she or I didn't like in one way or another, she finally found one that we both could agree on. While the first outfits were more like my current outfit but with different pants, boots, or something or other; this outfit was a whole new, ground up outfit. It consisted of a pair of dark brown leather riding boots with a pair of black pants tucked into them with a brown belt. A white dress shirt tucked in with the sleeves rolled up, a black vest and a red puff tie. To finish the outfit off, I had a pair of brown fingerless gloves to match the gauntlets Nikita made. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and found the outfit really suited me.

"Yeah, we have a definite winner." I said.

Coco nodded. "Of course we do, I put it together afterall."

"True but I pull it off."

Coco looked me up and down before smirking. "Yes, you do. Oh, I was thinking about a hat to go with the outfit."

I nodded. "It would complete the outfit."

Coco quickly picked up a black felt outback hat and handed it to me. I put it on and looked in the mirror again. Now I looked like an old west gunslinger which caused me to smile in satisfaction. I then changed back into my old clothing and exited the changing booth.

"Now, lets get going." Coco said as she began to drag me, again literally, over to the cashier.

"Please tell me that were not going to another store." I pleaded.

"No, don't be silly." Coco replied. "I don't hit two stores in a day, you're taking me out for breakfast."

Once we got to the counter and I was let go, I straightened out my clothing. "You could have just told me that when we first left."

"Where's the fun in that?" Coco replied with a smirk.

' _This woman is going to be the death of me._ '

* * *

 **A/N: I'M ALIVE! It has been a long couple of months with work, Covid, and the general insanity of 2020 but I'm back. Now that things are _somewhat_ normal, regular(ish) updates will return. I'll try for once a week but it most likely will be biweekly. I hope you all are surviving this crazy year and thank you all for the support. I was not expecting this story to blow up like it did and I can not thank you guys enough. **


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